Gone From My Sight

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white
sails to the morning breeze and starts
for the blue ocean. She is an object of
beauty and strength. I stand and watch
her until at length she hangs like a speck
of white cloud just where the sea and sky
come to mingle with each other.

Then, someone at my side says;
"There, she is gone!"

"Gone where?"

Gone from my sight. That is all. She is
just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side and
she is just as able to bear her living
freight to her destined port.
Her diminished size is in me, not in her.

And just at the moment when someone
at my side says;
"There, she is gone!"

There are other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices ready to take up the glad
shout;

"Here she comes!"

And that is dying.

Author: Henry Van Dyke