What an exceeding rest 'twill be <br />When I can leave off being Me! <br />To think of it! — at last be rid <br />Of all the things I ever did! <br /> <br /> <br />Done with the varying distress <br />Of retroactive consciousness! <br />Set free to feel the joy unknown <br />Of Life and Love beyond my own! <br /> <br /> <br />Why should I long to have John Smith <br />Eternally to struggle with? <br />I'm John — but somehow cherubim <br />Seem quite incongruous with him. <br /> <br /> <br />It would not seem so queer to dwell <br />Eternally John Smith in Hell. <br />To be one man forever seems <br />Most fit in purgatorial dreams. <br /> <br /> <br />But Heaven! Rest and Power and Peace <br />Must surely mean the soul's release <br />From this small labeled entity — <br />This passing limitation — Me!<br /><br />Charlotte Perkins Stetson Gilman<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/eternal-me/
