America in the 1850s and 1860s was a nation in crisis, and eventually, a nation at war with itself. In writing an epic about America, Whitman desired to heal the nation with his words. Many of his poems celebrate the potential of America due to the great beauty and wonder inherent in its citizens. But the issue of slavery, in particular, was the great wound that seemed too infected to heal. While Whitman often wrote about restoring the dream of America, in “I Sit and Look Out,” his despair is clear. The speaker cannot act, other than to “see,” hear,” and “observe.” He can do nothing to change the fates of those whose lives and happiness are at peril.

Some argue that the 1860 edition of Leaves of Grass was the only edition that allowed such doubt and despair to move through the poems, especially in the grouping of the 24-poem cluster of which “I Sit and Look Out” is number 17. The critic David Haven Blake argues that Whitman’s use of clustering allows readers a chance to see Whitman exploring issues of ambivalence and despair. When the clusters were abandoned in later editions, the theme of despair was abandoned: