e boy, foreshadowing what he is to become. Attention is not focused on the birds and sea themselves, but on the boy-man's growing understanding brought on by them. They are then factors in the equation of nature and speaker.
             The seemingly autobiographical nature of this piece instantly calls for observation. The speaker is an older Whitman, advanced and experienced. The poem is a remembrance of his childhood from afar. This gives Whitman the opportunity to distance himself from the time period and make further matured observation. As said before, the experience written of here is a major cause of his personal assent.
             The structure of time changes throughout the piece, but is consistent. The first stanza of the poem is mostly in the present tense as the advanced Whitman is summarizing the events before he tells of them. Around line ten (still the first stanza) Whitman begins to go deeper into summarized explanation with a change to past tense. He here tells, quite literally, of the two birds' effect on him as recognized by an older man, but originally seen through a child's eye. He speaks of the power it held over his senses and how it forces the coming flashback.
             From the memories of the bird that chanted to me,
             From your memories sad brother, from the fitful risings and falling I heard
             From under that yellow half-moon late-risen and swollen as if with tears,
             From those beginning notes of yearning and love there in the mist,
             ...