Fiction Adaptation - Project Proposal

This is my project proposal with brief concepts about the poem and its origins. 

The context of this poem - 

Fry wrote this poem in 1932. She wrote the poem specifically for a young German Jewish girl named Margaret Schwarzkopf who lived with Frye and was worried about her mother who lived in Germany. Frye wrote the poem from the point of view of the girl’s mother in order to give hope and comfort to this young girl who had suffered so much. In 1939, the U.S Congress published her poem for the United Spanish War Veterans Memorial Service. The effect of the poem was monumental. It resonated with every reader who had ever lost a loved one. Thus, Frye became famous through this one small poem written with the intention of comforting a young girl overcome with grief. This poem not only offered comfort to the young girl for whom it was written, but also to millions of readers across the world.

Do not stand at my grave and weep By Mary Elizabeth Frye


Do not stand at my grave and weep:
 I am not there; I do not sleep.
 I am a thousand winds that blow,
 I am the diamond glints on snow,
 I am the sun on ripened grain, 
I am the gentle autumn rain. 
When you awaken in the morning’s hush 
I am the swift uplifting rush
 Of quiet birds in circling flight.
 I am the soft starshine at night.
 Do not stand at my grave and cry:
 I am not there; I did not die.

I got from the poem that life is continuous. 

No static shots.  

I want themes of reincarnation. 

Play with opacity.


My interpretation for this poem is that life in its self is forever in a progressive cycle. Death is not the end, the dead return and accompany the living. It offers relief and comfort to the reader, to overcome emotional obstacles and this would resonate with millions as death is something that everyone can empathise/relate with.  

1905, spent her life as a poet and housewife. Although she is now named among some of the most famous American poets, she never earned a dime for her poetry, and it is this solitary poem which gave her a name among the most renowned American poets. Frye claimed that if she took money for the poem, it would lose it’s value. She also never sought a copyright for the poem, claiming that although she penned the words, the poem was not hers. She claimed that it belonged to the world. 

Play with opacity? Have a lead a male/female, standing in a large open space, particularly a field.