A glimpse through an interstice caught,
Of a crowd of workmen and drivers in a bar-room around the stove late of a winter night, and I unremark’d seated in a corner,
Of a youth who loves me and whom I love, silently approaching and seating himself near, that he may hold me by the hand,
A long while amid the noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest,
There we two, content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word.
Starting with the first line itself, the word “interstice” stood out to me, because I had no idea what it meant. Regardless, I continued with the rest of the poem in hopes that things would come together. From the first line itself, I was unable to keep up with the speaker. The sentence structure and interesting word choice did not make sense, and I also could not dissect what the dynamic of the relationship present in the poem was.
After my first read, I googled the definition; interstice means “an intervening space, especially a very small one”. This gave me the idea that this was a very deliberate interaction, and that the narrator was peeking, or spying almost, in order to catch a glimpse of the person they were looking for. I also noticed the interesting sentence structure in the first line. The technical subject would be “a glimpse through an interstice” which was caught. But the narrator remains unnamed, even though they were the one that actually caught the glimpse. I believe that this was to allow the reader to assume the position of the narrator, and feel as though this interaction is between the person in the poem and themselves.
I caught onto an exchanged interaction between two people, but Whitman’s use of the word “youth” in line 4 drew my attention. I originally thought that this was an interaction between two lovers, but maybe it is an interaction between a person and his younger self, or a friend of some sort. The ambiguity of the relationship dynamic is an interesting choice by Whitman, and something that I had difficulty understanding. Whitman made it clear that there was a deep connection, but never provided explicit details as to what that connection was. Since he has already allowed the reader to assume the position of a narrator, it makes it easier for this relationship to be left up to interpretation. The last line, “content, happy in being together, speaking little, perhaps not a word” makes one thing clear about the relationship: it transcends verbal communication. They find solace in each other’s presence. When I first read this poem, this was very clear to me. Whitman set the scene by explaining the noise and chaos of their surroundings, but made it clear that their interaction did not need to be loud. As I navigated the ambiguity of this relationship, I stopped trying to understand whether it was platonic or romantic, and began to focus more on how the connection plays a role in the poem as a whole.
One other thing that was very complex for me to understand was the use of “unremark’d”. The way this word was used, it almost sounded like a verb. To be completely honest, I blanked on what this word meant when I first read through the poem, but the fact that it was spelled like this stood out to me. It seems like Whitman is trying to say that he went unnoticed in the bar, but I wonder why he structured the sentence in such a way that made it sound like an action. The spelling of the word felt very disjointed to me, almost as if the speaker is trying to detach themselves from the rest of the noise and chaos around them and focus solely on the “youth” in front of them. They remain very uninvolved in the scene that is being set, but is there merely as an observer.
After deciphering many of the structural choices that Whitman made in this poem, I did a little research to find some background information. This poem was written in 1860, around the time of the civil war. This was a time of significant change in America, and I think that the scene Whitman is setting, by being able to stay focused on one person among all of the noise around him is symbolic of staying close to your beliefs and values as America went through a significant industrial, political, and cultural change during this time.
Samika, simply from the first couple paragraphs, I could tell that you were highly focused on the difficult language of the poem. I completely agree with how you say that the reader is allowed to assume the position of the narrator in this case because the ambiguity of the narrator as a person is clear. I also believe that your suggestion of a connection between the narrator and their younger self deepens your thematic exploration of nostalgia and remembrance. I also like how you examine the narrator’s choice of words to create a feeling of solace between friends. Furthermore, your contextualization of the poem within the background of the Civil War era provides extremely significant information to help understand different beliefs around that time. It provides insight into the background of the author which may influence the poem’s meaning. Overall, the way you worked through this piece considering different word choices as well as information over the background of the author showed extremely helpful in decrypting this poem.
Samika – I think it’s interesting that by looking up the meaning of one word you didn’t understand at the beginning of the poem, you were able to begin understanding the rest of the poem. It makes me feel like that single word sets up the entire premise of the rest of the poem, which makes the poem intriguing to me. While reading your poem, I personally don’t think I would have been able to figure out that the poem was left narrator-less, leaving me, the reader, as the narrator rather than having an explicit narrator. Since you were able to figure this out, that shows to me that you really dug deep into this poem to find understanding. I also really like how you looked up the context of the poem. I tried to do this with my poem, but was unable to use the context of the poem to find extra meaning within the poem, but it’s really cool how the context surrounding your poem played a role within the meaning. All in all, I thought your explanations were very thought out and well articulated in a way that helped me understand how you came to a final conclusion about the meaning of your poem.