Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TWENTY YEARS, by WALT WHITMAN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TWENTY YEARS, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Down on the ancient wharf, the sand, I sit, with a new-comer chatting
Last Line: Of the future?)
Subject(s): Time


Down on the ancient wharf, the sand, I sit, with a new-comer chatting:
He shipp'd as green-hand boy, and sail'd away, (took some
sudden, vehement notion;)
Since, twenty years and more have circled round and round,
While he the plobe was circling round and round, -- and now returns:
How changed the place -- all the old land-marks gone -- the
parents dead;
(Yes, he comes back to lay in port for good -- to settle --
has a well-fill'd purse -- no spot will do but this;)
The little boat that scull'd him from the sloop, now held
in leash I see,
I hear the slapping waves, the restless keel, the rocking in the sand,
I see the sailor kit, the canvas bag, the great box bound with brass,
I scan the face all berry-brown and bearded -- the stout-strong fame,
Dress'd in its russet suit of good Scotch cloth:
(Then what the told-out story of those twenty years? What
of the future?)





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