I SIT and look out upon all the sorrows of the world, and upon all oppression and shame; 
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at anguish with themselves, remorseful after
	deeds
	done; 
I see, in low life, the mother misused by her children, dying, neglected, gaunt,
    desperate; 
I see the wife misused by her husband—I see the treacherous seducer of young women; 
I mark the ranklings of jealousy and unrequited love, attempted to be hid—I see these
	sights on
	the earth;
I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny—I see martyrs and prisoners; 
I observe a famine at sea—I observe the sailors casting lots who shall be
    kill’d, to
	preserve the lives of the rest; 
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons upon laborers, the poor,
    and
	upon
	negroes, and the like; 
All these—All the meanness and agony without end, I sitting, look out upon, 
See, hear, and am silent.

Added: on February 23rd, 2008 at 3:21 AM | Viewed: 12777 times | Comments (25)

Poet: Walt Whitman
Poem: 1. I Sit and Look Out.
Volume: Leaves of Grass
- 4. Leaves of Grass
Year: Published/Written in 1900
Poem of the Day: Jul 5 2006

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