ON DYING

By Bishop Charles Henry Brent

A ship sails and I stand watching
till she fades on 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 now as when I last saw her.
Her diminished size and total loss from my 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 over their horizon and other voices
take up a glad shout,

"There she comes!"

That is what dying is;
An horizon and just the limit of our sight.

Lift us up, Oh Lord, that we may see further.