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 | Leaves of grass. |  |
5.
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 an- guish 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 cast- ing lots who shall be kill'd, to preserve the lives of the rest;
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arro- gant 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.
I hear secret convulsive sobs from young men, at an- guish 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 cast- ing lots who shall be kill'd, to preserve the lives of the rest;
I observe the slights and degradations cast by arro- gant 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.
| Leaves of grass. | |