The Sailing Ship modified from an original work by Bishop Charles Henry Brent
What is dying?
I am standing on the seashore
A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
The ship is an object and I stand watching it
Till at last it fades from the horizon,
And someone at my side says, "The ship is gone!" Gone where?
Gone from sight, that is all;
It is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as it was when I saw it,
And just as able to bear its load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in the ship;
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "The ship is gone",
There are others who are watching it coming,
And other voices take up a glad shout,
"There it comes"
And that is dying.