In her poem "Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep," Mary Elizabeth Frye uses simple, straightforward poetic diction, one-syllable rhymes, anaphora, and visual imagery to make her point. This point is that not everything is lost in death and that a part of her will survive in the natural world (though it is not clear how).

"Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep" is a popular poem for funerals, partly because it is short and easily understood, with simple vocabulary and rhyme scheme. The poet uses anaphora, beginning eight of the twelve lines with the words "I am" to emphasize the multiple ways in which she survives. The strong visual images of snow, grain, birds, and stars add to the poem's appeal.

The point the poet makes is that she will, in some sense, survive her death, but how she will do so is not altogether clear. The reader may think she is simply saying that the physical substance of her body will survive. However, if the poet is saying that her consciousness will survive death, this is a mystical statement, and she gives no indication of how it might happen. In either case, death is clearly not bad, it is either the end of consciousness or some mystical, beautiful posthumous existence.