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. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...WASHING-DAY by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE IMPORTANCE OF GREEN by JAMES GALVIN THE SEMANTICS OF FLOWERS ON MEMORIAL DAY by BOB HICOK OMNIPRESENCE by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON AQUATINT FRAMED IN GOLD by AMY LOWELL |