a ship at my side spreads his white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean
He is an object of beauty and strength
and I stand and watch him until at length
he hangs like a speck of white cloud just where the sea
and sky come down to mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says: “There! He’s gone.”
Gone Where? Gone from my sight – That is all.
He is just as large in mast and hull and spar as he was
when he left my side,
and just as able to bear his Load of living freight
To the place of destination.
His diminished size is in me, not in him: and just at the moment
when someone at my side says, “There! He’s Gone”,
There are other eyes watching him coming,
And other voices ready to take up the glad shout,
“There he comes”.
