Submitted by Geniece Leftwich Marcum
In loving Memory of my friend Pauline Compton Hughes Hodges,
who passed away May 23, 2010, at her home near Edmonton.

I am standing upon the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails
to the morning breeze,
and starts for the blue sea.

She is an object of beauty and strength,
I watch her until at length
she hangs like a speck of white cloud,
just where the sea and sky meet
and mingle with each other.

Someone at my side says:
"There! She is gone!"
Gone where? From my sight , that is all.
She is as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side,
just as able to bear her load
to the port of destination.

Her diminished size is in me,
and not in her.
At the moment I say: "She is gone."
other eyes watching her coming,
and other voices
ready to take up the glad shout say:
"There she comes!"
"And that is dying!

The above poem is variously attributed to different 19th Century Poets, often to Henry Van Dyke. It was printed in the 1904 Record of Christian Work, Volume 23.