I Was Something That Lay Under the Sun

I Was Something That Lay Under the Sun

I was something that lay under the sun
and felt it, like the pumpkins,
and I did not want to be anything more.
I was entirely happy.
Perhaps we feel like that when we die
and become a part of something entire,
whether it is sun and air, or goodness and knowledge.
At any rate, that is happiness;
to be dissolved into something complete and great.
When it comes to one, it comes as naturally as sleep.

―Willa Cather
My Antonia