Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


I SIT AND LOOK OUT by WALT WHITMAN

Poet Analysis

First Line: I SIT AND LOOK OUT UPON ALL THE SORROWS OF THE WORLD, AND UPON ALL OPPRESSION
Last Line: SEE, HEAR, AND AM SILENT.
Subject(s): EVIL; SOCIAL PROTEST;

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.



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