The Sailing Ship

What is dying?
I am standing on the sea shore.
A ship sails to the morning breeze and starts for the ocean.
She is the object of beauty and I stand watching her
Till at last she fades into the horizon,
And someone at my side says, "She is gone!" Gone where? Gone from my sight, that is all;
She is just as large in the masts, hull and spars as she was when I saw her,
And just as able to bear her load of living freight to its destination.
The diminished size and total loss of sight is in me, not in her;
And just at the moment when someone at my side says, "She is gone",
There are others who are watching her coming,
And other voices take up a glad shout, "Here she comes" - and that is dying.

Charles Henry Brent