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. 10
Upon all the sorrows of the world! ! ! Thanks for sharing this poem with us.
Whitman have written the ills of society he saw in his time and that same ills still persists today. Excellent poem.
It is deeply disturbing - man's inhumanity to his fellow human beings - very beautifully captured in this small poem!
A powerful indictment of not only the ubiquitous commission of injustice, but also the ubiquitous omission of intervention.
A profound write depicting the real real world with self serving brutes and injustices perpetrated by them.
Yeah, there are so much injustices in this world. Even you can't count. It is a nice poem.
Such an excellent poem about all the injustices in the world. And how we all see and hear them, but remain silent. We just sit and do nothing. Almost nothing! Our poetry sometimes motivates readers. And if we're lucky, it stirs them into action!