Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Whitman: I sit and look out...

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 o
f 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.


Related posts:
  1. Whitman: I think I could turn and live with animals...
  2. Whitman: There the great city stands...
  3. Whitman: Resist much, obey little... 
  4. Whitman: To a pupil...
  5. Whitman: How Solemn as One by One...

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