"Gone From My Sight", also known as the "Parable of Immortality" and "What Is Dying" is a poem (or
prose poem) presumably written by the Rev.
Luther F. Beecher (1813–1903), cousin of
Henry Ward Beecher and
Harriet Beecher Stowe
Harriet Elisabeth Beecher Stowe (; June 14, 1811 – July 1, 1896) was an American author and abolitionist. She came from the religious Beecher family and became best known for her novel ''Uncle Tom's Cabin'' (1852), which depicts the harsh ...
.
At least three publications credit the poem to Luther Beecher in printings shortly after his death in 1904.
However, it is often attributed to
Henry Van Dyke, probably due to his name appearing as the author in a widely distributed booklet b
award winning end of life educator Barbara Karnes, RNentitled
Gone from My Sight: The Dying Experience" This "little blue book" is the original, and remains the most widely used, patient/family educational booklet on the signs of approaching death. It has been in print continuously since 1985 and has sold over 35 million copies.
Hospice
Hospice care is a type of health care that focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's pain and symptoms and attending to their emotional and spiritual needs at the end of life. Hospice care prioritizes comfort and quality of life by ...
and Home Health agencies distribute this booklet to educate families of patients nearing the end of life. It is also often read at
funerals and memorial services.
I am standing upon 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 her until she hangs like a speck of white cloud
just where the sea and sky come down to meet and mingle with each other.
Then someone at my side says: “There! She’s 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 her destination.
Her diminished size is in me and not in her.
And just at that moment
when someone at my side says: “There! She’s gone!”
there are other eyes that are watching for her coming;
and other voices ready to take up the glad shout:
“There she comes!”
References
{{Reflist
American poems