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I Sit and Look Out.

Part of the cluster BY THE ROADSIDE.

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.01663.222.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.

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