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There are 175 comments in this document
  1. MANNAHATTA (2)
  2. PAUMANOK (1)
  3. FROM MONTAUK POINT (1)
  4. TO THOSE WHO’VE FAIL’D (1)
  5. A CAROL CLOSING SIXTY-NINE (1)
  6. THE BRAVEST SOLDIERS (1)
  7. A FONT OF TYPE (1)
  8. AS I SIT WRITING HERE (2)
  9. MY CANARY BIRD (2)
  10. QUERIES TO MY SEVENTIETH YEAR (4)
  11. THE WALLABOUT MARTYRS (3)
  12. THE FIRST DANDELION (1)
  13. AMERICA (2)
  14. MEMORIES (1)
  15. TO-DAY AND THEE (2)
  16. AFTER THE DAZZLE OF DAY (2)
  17. ABRAHAM LINCOLN, BORN FEB. 12, 1809 (1)
  18. OUT OF MAY’S SHOWS SELECTED (1)
  19. HALCYON DAYS (1)
  20. FANCIES AT NAVESINK (20)
  21. ELECTION DAY, NOVEMBER, 1884 (2)
  22. WITH HUSKY-HAUGHTY LIPS, O SEA! (17)
  23. DEATH OF GENERAL GRANT (4)
  24. RED JACKET (FROM ALOFT.) (1)
  25. WASHINGTON’S MONUMENT, FEBRUARY, 1885 (4)
  26. OF THAT BLITHE THROAT OF THINE (11)
  27. BROADWAY (1)
  28. TO GET THE FINAL LILT OF SONGS (6)
  29. OLD SALT KOSSABONE (1)
  30. THE DEAD TENOR (10)
  31. CONTINUITIES. [From a talk I had lately with a German spiritualist.] (1)
  32. YONNONDIO (7)
  33. LIFE (2)
  34. “GOING SOMEWHERE.” (2)
  35. SMALL THE THEME OF MY CHANT (0)
  36. TRUE CONQUERORS (2)
  37. THE UNITED STATES TO OLD WORLD CRITICS (2)
  38. THE CALMING THOUGHT OF ALL (3)
  39. THANKS IN OLD AGE (1)
  40. LIFE AND DEATH (1)
  41. THE VOICE OF THE RAIN (4)
  42. SOON SHALL THE WINTER’S FOIL BE HERE (6)
  43. WHILE NOT THE PAST FORGETTING (1)
  44. THE DYING VETERAN. [A Long Island incident — early part of the present century.] (1)
  45. STRONGER LESSONS (0)
  46. A PRAIRIE SUNSET (4)
  47. TWENTY YEARS (2)
  48. ORANGE BUDS BY MAIL FROM FLORIDA (2)
  49. TWILIGHT (5)
  50. YOU LINGERING SPARSE LEAVES OF ME (1)
  51. NOT MEAGRE, LATENT BOUGHS ALONE (1)
  52. THE DEAD EMPEROR (2)
  53. AS THE GREEK’S SIGNAL FLAME. [For Whittier’s eightieth birthday, December 17, 1887.] (0)
  54. THE DISMANTLED SHIP (0)
  55. NOW PRECEDENT SONGS, FAREWELL (0)
  56. AN EVENING LULL (0)
  57. OLD AGE’S LAMBENT PEAKS (0)
  58. AFTER THE SUPPER AND TALK (0)
  59. By That Long Scan of Waves (16)
Avatar of bmzreece bmzreece
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"Twenty Years" tells of a meeting with a sailor who left the area as a boy and has now returned after 20 years of circling the world [Whitman first writes of time having "circled round and round" then immediately after speaks of the sailor "circling round and round" the globe]. But rather than focus on the adventures that transpired during the sailor's time at sea, Whitman focuses on how Time has changed the area while the sailor was gone: "How CHANGED the place -- ALL the old land-marks gone -- the parents DEAD" [emphases mine]. And even this focus on the 20 year-period is short-lived, as the poem quickly shifts to the sights and sounds of the scene. Though it is convenient for Whitman to explain detailed sights in a poem that he knew would be illustrated, the suddenness of the shift goes along with the theme of great change: Just as surely as Time leaves nothing unchanged [whether the land or the people], so Whitman's focus within the poem need not stay steady.
Avatar of bmzreece bmzreece
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Originally written for the illustrated Magazine of Art in 1887, "Twenty Years" was illustrated by Walter Paget, whose brother, Sidney Paget, was the illustrator for the Sherlock Holmes stories. A digital image of a copy of the original issue can be found here: http://www.whitmanarchive.org/published/periodical/figures/per.00046.001.jpg
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