"THE SHIP" poem

[echokilo]

Can anyone supply a copy of a poem which I think is called The Ship, it's about someone passing away and people on one shore saying she is gone, she is gone and people on the other side/shore celebrating, saying she is here, she is back with us etc. It's about the reuniting of someone on death with loved ones who has gone before them (I think!!)

[shaneystar2]

This one ?
THE SHIP OF LIFE
by John T. Baker

Along the shore I spy a ship
As she sets out to sea;
She spreads her sails and sniffs the breeze
And slips away from me.

I watch her fading image shrink,
As she moves on and on,
Until at last she�s but a speck,
Then someone says, �She�s gone.�

Gone where? Gone only from our sight
And from our farewell cries;
That ship will somewhere reappear
To other eager eyes.

Beyond the dim horizon�s rim
Resound the welcome drums,
And while we�re crying, �There she goes!�
They�re shouting, �Here she comes!�

We�re built to cruise for but a while
Upon this trackless sea
Until one day we sail away
Into infinity.

[echokilo]

Yipee!!! Yes, thanks shaneystar - that's it !!!! Thank you so much.

[salome]

it's titled:
Parable of Immortality ( A ship leaves . . . )
by Henry Van Dyke - 1852 - 1933


I am standing by the seashore.
A ship at my side spreads her white sails to the morning breeze
and starts for the blue ocean.
She is an object of beauty and strength,
and I stand and watch
until at last she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sun and sky come down to mingle with each other.

Then someone at my side says, 'There she is gone!
Gone where? Gone from my sight - that is all.

She is just as large in mast and hull and spar
as she was when she left my side
and just as able to bear her load of living freight
to the place of destination.
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 :
'There! She comes!'

- and that is Dying.