A Glimpse

Regardless of the poem’s historical context surrounding the onset of the Civil War, there are a few forces innate to the poem that the workmen attempt to elude. The first would be labor itself. The individuals in the “bar-room” are clearly identified as “workmen and drivers,” individuals of the lower and working classes (Line 2). The fact that they are gathering “around the stove late” indicates that they are most likely meeting after working hours have ended. They seek one another’s company to help decompress from the day’s hard work and escape their troubles for a little while. Besides eluding the pressures of work, the workmen also seek out one another to shelter from the “winter night” outside (Line 2). Being together with other bodies, regardless of the warmth from the stove, provides its own source of heat - both physical as well as a social and emotional warmth. The speaker and his lover likewise seek out one another’s company for respite from the world outside. While the workmen escape work and the winter, the two lovers use one another’s company to shelter themselves from the “noises of coming and going, of drinking and oath and smutty jest” coming from the other individuals in the bar (Line 6).