23 pages 46 minutes read

Walt Whitman

I Sit and Look Out

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1860

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Reading Comprehension Questions

1. From what vantage point does the speaker observe the world?

A) standing

B) sitting

C) looking down

D) looking up

2. What sound does the speaker hear from the young men?

A) laughter

B) shouting

C) groaning

D) crying

3. What do the mother and the wife that the speaker observes have in common?

A) both are dying

B) both are thin

C) both are misused

D) both are married

4. Which lines of the poem describe the oppression of particular social groups?

A) “I see the rankings of jealousy and unrequited love attempted to / be hid” (9-10)

B)  “I see the workings of battle, pestilence, tyranny” (11)

C) “I observe the sailors casting lots who / shall be kill’d to preserve the lives of the rest” (13-14)

D) “I observe the slights and degradations cast by arrogant persons / upon laborers, the poor, upon negroes, and the like;” (15-16)

5. What does the speaker do in response to the suffering and oppression he sees?

A) records his observations in the poem

B) fights for justice

C) nothing

D) kills himself

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