I am standing
upon the seashore.
A ship at
my side spreads her white sails to the 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 sight.
That is all
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.
~Henry Scott
Holland~
