# Twenty Years explained — Leaves of Grass

> Chapter companion for Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman.

## What happens

A narrator sits on an ancient wharf, conversing with a man who left as a green-hand boy twenty years ago and has now returned after circling the globe. The landmarks are gone, parents dead, but he returns to settle with a well-filled purse. The scene evokes the passage of time, change, and the enduring pull of home.

## Themes in this chapter

### Death and Immortality

The death of the sailor's parents and the disappearance of old landmarks highlight the passage of time and mortality.

### Individuality and Self

The sailor's unique journey and personal history underscore the theme of individual experience and identity.

## Character check-ins

### Narrator

The narrator sits on the wharf, observing and conversing with the returned sailor.

### Old Salt Kossabone

The returned sailor, now berry-brown and bearded, who left as a boy and returns after twenty years.

## Key lines

> Twenty Years 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 globe was circling round and round,⁠—and now returns:

After twenty years, I sit on the old wharf talking with a man who left as a young, inexperienced sailor on a sudden impulse; he has spent those years traveling the world and now comes back.

_The narrator sets the scene of reunion and the passage of two decades._

> 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;)

Everything is different—familiar sights are gone, his parents have died; he returns to stay permanently, with plenty of money, and only this place will satisfy him.

_The sailor finds his home transformed and his family lost, yet he is determined to settle there._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters/twenty-years
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/leaves_of_grass_se/chapters