I sit and look out upon the world

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.