A Glimpse

Whitman’s poem can be classified by readers as a lyric poem, as it relates the personal thoughts and feelings of the speaker. The first line of the poem catches readers off guard with its inverted word order. The direct object, “a glimpse through an interstice” is “caught” (Line 1). The subject of this sentence, the individual who is “catching” this glimpse, is left unnamed. The anonymity of the subject position has a dual effect: creating a tone of mystery and suspense for the readers while also putting the reader into the subject position themself and making them feel as though they are a part of the text. An “interstice” can be defined as a small opening or gap. Seeing a “glimpse” through an “interstice” implies that the subject is peeking, or spying. They are looking into a private space or world that is not intended for public view. The fact that they are only seeing a “glimpse” means that they are only seeing a partial image or view of this private setting - not the full picture.

The exact description of this “glimpse” that is seen by the speaker, the reader, or the unnamed subject comes together in the second line. The “glimpse” encapsulates “a crowd of workmen and drivers” (Line 2). These particular individuals belong to the working class, those considered to be (at the time Whitman wrote) on the lower rungs of society. Rather than giving readers a look at the elite, the upper crust, the speaker describes the opposite. The exact setting surrounding these workmen comes later in the second line: “in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night.” Instead of retreating from this invasion of privacy into these working-class men’s world, readers are instead drawn into the scene with its sensations of warmth and welcome. The setting of the “bar-room” implies a communal gathering place where the workmen come together at the end of a long workday. They are drawn together by their shared understanding of hard work and their desire to relax and decompress after their hours spent at their respective tasks. The “late winter night” creates feelings of bleakness, cold, and darkness beyond the walls of the “bar-room.” Yet, the workmen are secure and comfortable in one another’s company, safe and warm around the stove. The intimacy carried in the word “glimpse” contrasts with the overtly public nature of the scene in the second line.

Also in the second line, readers meet the speaker of the poem for the first time, represented by the first-person pronoun “I.” There is no indication as to who this “I” actually is, their occupation, or their gender. The speaker sits separately from the workmen, removed and distant. As described in the third line, they are “in a corner” and “unremark’d.” The distance and alienation surrounding the speaker differs from the comradery shared by the workmen gathered around the stove. The speaker is not part of this group but solitary and removed. This solitude and loneliness is emphasized by these five words being separated and standing alone as their own line.

The fourth line begins the same as the second, with the repetition of “Of a…” This repetition sets up a pattern of readers seeing another “glimpse”; it implies that readers are going to receive another portion of the “action” in the poem. The next “glimpse” readers are introduced to moves them from the communal nature of the workmen, to the solitude of the speaker, to the intimacy of lovers. The speaker is approached by “a youth who loves me and whom I love” (Line 5). While the workmen find their respite in the company of their colleagues after a long day of hard work, the speaker receives immediate comfort in the appearance of their lover. The lover is gendered masculine with the usage of the pronouns “himself” and “he” (Line 4). This individual “silently” approaches to sit “near” to the speaker. There does not seem to be a need for either of the men to talk, as the lover seats himself without speaking. The descriptor “near” heightens this sense of intimacy between the two individuals even further. This intangible intimacy transfers to physical intimacy as the lover holds the speaker “by the hand” (Line 5).

In the undulating movement of the poem shifting between the public/communal and the private/intimate, the text once again surveys the setting of the “bar-room” (Line 2). With its gathering of members of the working class recouping after a long day’s work, the bar is filled with commotion: “noises of coming and going,” “drinking,” “oath,” “smutty jest” (Line 6). The nature of the other individuals in the bar seems transient, no single individual staying for long. The references to “oath” and “smutty jest” implies vulgarity and swearing along with the drinking that the workmen participate in - a somewhat stereotypical portrayal of the working class.

After describing the scene in the bar, the text shifts back again to the lovers. Despite the commotion from the workers continuing for “[a] long while” (Line 6), the two lovers remain “content” with one another’s company (Line 7). The nature of their relationship isn’t transient but static and solid. They are simply “happy in being together” (Line 7). Their bond is so secure that with everything going on all around them, they feel connected even without saying anything. They are “speaking little, perhaps not a word” (Line 7). They do not need to fill the already boisterous atmosphere with more noise in order to convey their emotions for one another. Their bond is so deep that they can simply sense it by being in one another’s presence. The usage of the word “perhaps” at the end once again creates a sense of mystery in the poem. If the speaker were truly there, wouldn’t they know for sure whether or not anything was spoken between themself and their lover? “Perhaps” returns this “glimpse” to a possibly hypothetical “glimpse” born in the speaker’s imagination, an intimate “glimpse” at their deepest desires.