I Sit and Look Out.

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 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, [ begin page 216 ]

ppp.00707.224.jpg 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.

Part of the cluster BY THE ROADSIDE.