FEINBERG/WHITMAN
Box 26 Folder 10
LITERARY FILE
POETRY FILE
"After Twenty Year"(1887). Proof Sheets.

Published as "Twenty Years." Includes AMs. 
Correction & notation. 1734 (1p.18 1/2 x 15 1/2 cm.)
1888 [underlined] After Twenty Years: Proof with Notation and Change. A.MS.[/underlined]

Written in ink at the top of a proof of 'After Twenty Years', a 12 line poem, with a printed signature, the title having 'After' cancelled, and 6 words:

[underlined] From the English Magazine of Art [/underlined]

The poem was published as 'Twenty Years' in [underlined] November Boughs [/underlined]. Horace Traubel, [underlined] With Walt Whitman in Camden [/underlined], II, 134. writes: 'He called my attention to Twenty Years, which appears in the Magazine of Art, a copy of which he received today. "I like the drawing as drawing, though it is far enough away from anything I thought of when I wrote the piece. The general make-up of the page is very flattering. The boy there is the shrouds--he is best of all: splendid, easy, natural. It is true, too, as you say, that this figure down here on the shore--this strong, straight somebody with his hands in his pockets--is a try at me--of me as you know me in that Leaves of Grass portrait. Do you remember, the Magazine man

[[over]]1735

said he would like to be informed whether the page pleased me? Well, I am pleased--much pleased--and you can say so to him or anyone. I don't mind it that he chose his own way of illustrating the poem--that was his own little privilege: he tried his hand at explication. The picture is like Hamlet--it has various ways of being interpreted.'[underlined] From the English Magazine of Art [/underlined]
[strikethrough] After [/strikethrough] TWENTY YEARS

Down on the ancient wharf, the sand, I sit, with a newcomer 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 globe 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 [italics] to lay in port for good - to settle [/italics] -- 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 beaded -- the stout-strong frame.
Dress'd in its russet suit of good Scotch cloth ; 
(Then what the told-out story of those twenty years ? what of the future ? )

WALT WHITMAN.The circumstances of presentation 
of this proof sheet is told in With
 Walt Whitman in Camden, Vol. 1. page 308

CEFAFTER TWENTY YEARS.

Down on the ancient wharf, the sand, I sit, with a newcomer 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 globe was circling round and round,—and now returns:
He changed the place—all the old land-marks gone—the parents dead ;
(Yes, he comes back to lay in rest 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 frame,
Dress’d in its russet suit of good Scotch cloth:
(Then what the told-out story of those twenty years? what of the future?)

WALT WHITMAN.

June 14, 1888.