23 pages • 46 minutes read
Walt WhitmanI Sit and Look Out
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1860A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Further Reading & Resources
Related Poems
"Song of Myself" by Walt Whitman (1855)
The “What is the Grass” section of “Song of Myself” shows Whitman’s ability to take a simple child’s question, “What is the grass?” and answer in an ever-expanding range of metaphorical answers, relying on his trademark catalogs and parallelism.
"When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d" by Walt Whitman (1865)
Whitman’s masterpiece is an elegy to Abraham Lincoln. While it is a lament for the assassinated president, it is also a lament for the nation that has just been through four years of war and must find a way to heal the wounds civil strife.
"Crossing Brooklyn Ferry" by Walt Whitman (1856)
Unlike “I Sit and Look Out,” which is weighed down by sorrow and lack of action, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry” is full of movement as Whitman’s speaker travels by ferry and delights in the sights and sounds of the city crowds. He also travels through time, imagining future riders of the ferry and speaking directly to them about the exuberance of America.
Further Literary Resources
"Why Walt Whitman Called America the ‘Greatest Poem’" by Karen Swallow Prior (2016)
In this article for The Atlantic, Prior connects the political upheavals surrounding the 2016 presidential election with the political upheavals that inspired much of Whitman’s poetry.
What Is the Grass: Walt Whitman in My Life by Mark Doty (2021)
The poet Mark Doty explores Whitman’s legacy on American poetry, including his own life and body of work.
"Leaves of Grass: America’s Lyric-Epic of Self and Democracy" by James E. Miller, Jr. (1992)
In Miller’s series of essays, he explores Whitman’s literary and historical contexts, providing a background for Whitman’s groundbreaking Leaves of Grass as it redefined the American literary scene.
Listen to Poem
A short film in which the words of Whitman’s “I Sit and Look Out” are read as a young man reads the news on his computer, clicking on various news stories detailing the cruelty and sadness of the world.
Related Titles
By Walt Whitman
