Rainbow Bridge Poem: All 3 Versions

For more than sixty years, this short poem has been read at pet funerals, printed inside vets’ condolence cards, and passed from one grieving owner to another — usually with the words “author unknown” underneath. It is probably the most shared piece of writing about losing a pet ever written. Here it is in full, followed by the story of the woman who wrote it — a story that stayed hidden until 2023.

Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.

When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here, that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge. There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends so they can run and play together. There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends are warm and comfortable.

All the animals who had been ill and old are restored to health and vigor. Those who were hurt or maimed are made whole and strong again, just as we remember them in our dreams of days and times gone by. The animals are happy and content, except for one small thing; they each miss someone very special to them, who had to be left behind.

They all run and play together, but the day comes when one suddenly stops and looks into the distance. His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers. Suddenly he begins to run from the group, flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.

You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion, never to be parted again. The happy kisses rain upon your face; your hands again caress the beloved head, and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet, so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.

Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together….

— Edna Clyne-Rekhy, 1959

Who really wrote the Rainbow Bridge poem

For decades, nobody knew. The poem circulated through pet-loss newsletters in the 1980s and 90s, then across the early internet, always unsigned. Dear Abby printed it. Millions shared it. Everyone assumed the author was lost to history.

She wasn’t. In 2023, the art historian Paul Koudounaris traced the poem to Edna Clyne-Rekhy, a Scottish woman in her eighties. She had written it in 1959, when she was nineteen, on the morning after her Labrador, Major, died. Her mother had told her to write down what she was feeling — so she did, by hand, on a notebook, and the words came out almost exactly as the world now knows them. She showed the pages to her husband and a few friends, typed out copies for the ones who asked, and never signed a single one. Then she put the original away in a drawer and got on with her life.

She had no idea the poem had travelled. When Koudounaris found her, she was astonished to learn that the private thing she had written for one dog had comforted millions of people — that for sixty-four years, strangers all over the world had been reading her grief for Major and recognising their own.

There is something fitting in that. The poem never needed a famous name behind it. It spread on nothing but the truth of what it says.

What the Rainbow Bridge means

The poem describes a meadow “just this side of heaven”, where pets who have died wait — restored to health, young again, running and playing — until the day their person arrives. Then comes the moment every grieving owner holds onto: they spot you in the distance, break from the group, and run to you. And you cross the bridge together, this time with no goodbye at the end of it.

That is why the image has lasted. It doesn’t ask you to believe anything in particular — it simply refuses the idea that the parting is final. It gives grief a direction to look in: not backwards at the loss, but forwards, at a reunion. The image even has an ancient echo: Norse mythology told of Bifröst, a rainbow bridge connecting the world of humans to the realm of the gods. Edna, for her part, said the words simply came to her that morning — some images seem to be simply where grief goes to look.

This is also why “crossing the Rainbow Bridge” has become the way millions of owners speak about a pet’s death — gentler words for the hardest day, and the reason Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day is held every 28 August in their honour.

The other versions you might remember

Edna’s poem travelled for sixty years without a name attached — and things that travel unsigned get rewritten. Two other versions circulate widely, and if the one in your memory doesn’t quite match the text above, it is probably one of these.

The simplified version. A shorter, plainer retelling that begins “There is a bridge connecting Heaven and Earth…”. Its author is unknown; it keeps the same meadow and the same reunion in simpler sentences.

There is a bridge connecting Heaven and Earth.

It is called the Rainbow Bridge because of all its beautiful colors.

Just this side of the Rainbow Bridge there is a land of meadows, hills and valleys with lush green grass.

When a beloved pet dies, the pet goes to this place.

There is always food and water and warm spring weather.

The old and frail animals are young again.

Those who were sick, hurt or in pain are made whole again.

There is only one thing missing, they are not with their special person who loved them so much on earth.

So each day they run and play until the day comes when one suddenly stops playing and looks up!

The nose twitches! The ears are up!

The eyes are staring and this one runs from the group!

You have been seen and when you and your special friend meet, you take him in your arms and hug him.

He licks and kisses your face again and again – and you look once more into the eyes of your best friend and trusting pet.

Then you cross the Rainbow Bridge together never again to be apart.

—-Simplified version, author unknown

The rhyming version. If the version you remember rhymes, and begins “By the edge of a woods, at the foot of a hill”, that is a 1998 adaptation by Steve and Diane Bodofsky, which reworks the meadow and the reunion into verse.

By the edge of a woods, at the foot of a hill,
Is a lush, green meadow where time stands still.
Where the friends of man and woman do run,
When their time on earth is over and done.

For here, between this world and the next,
Is a place where each beloved creature finds rest.
On this golden land, they wait and they play,
Till the Rainbow Bridge they cross over one day.

No more do they suffer, in pain or in sadness,
For here they are whole, their lives filled with gladness.
Their limbs are restored, their health renewed,
Their bodies have healed, with strength imbued.

They romp through the grass, without even a care,
Until one day they start, and sniff at the air.
All ears prick forward, eyes dart front and back,
Then all of a sudden, one breaks from the pack.

For just at that instant, their eyes have met;
Together again, both person and pet.
So they run to each other, these friends from long past,
The time of their parting is over at last.

The sadness they felt while they were apart,
Has turned into joy once more in each heart.
They embrace with a love that will last forever,
And then, side-by-side, they cross over… together.

© 1998, Steve and Diane Bodofsky

Is the poem only about dogs?

No. Edna wrote it for a Labrador, but the poem itself never names a species — it speaks of “an animal who has been especially close to someone here”. It is read for cats, rabbits, horses, birds, and every other companion just as often as for dogs. If you loved them and they loved you back, the meadow in the poem has room for them.

A copy to keep or to give

Many people like to keep the poem somewhere physical — tucked into a frame beside a photo, printed for a memorial service, or included with a sympathy card when a friend loses a pet. You are welcome to print the version on this page for personal use; we credit Edna Clyne-Rekhy wherever it appears, and if you share it, we hope you will too — she went sixty-four years without her name on it, which is long enough.

Some families go one step further and pair the poem with a picture of the face it is really about. If that feels right for you, our pet memorial portraits are made from your own favourite photo, and our guide to pet memorial gifts collects other meaningful ways to keep them close. The poem gives the grief words; a portrait gives it a face.

When was the Rainbow Bridge poem written?

The Rainbow Bridge poem was written in 1959 by Edna Clyne-Rekhy in Scotland, the morning after her dog Major died. It spread anonymously for over sixty years and was formally attributed to her in 2023, following research by historian Paul Koudounaris published in National Geographic. The simplified prose variant and the 1998 rhyming adaptation grew out of her original as it travelled — the version at the top of this page follows the text as it is most widely shared, with her name restored to it.