At some point, [Whitman] penciled a note on the script of the unpublished [poem] "Pictures": "Break all this into several pictures." That is, break open the casque of consciousness in which the images floated . . . and declare its single perceptions to be poems. Several poems from the Calamus sequence, like . . . "A Glimpse," are moving toward independence from the sponsoring mind. . . . In such poems, the order of observation implies a statement of sorts. . . . "A Glimpse" advances from outside to inside, from noisy barroom to quiet nook, from coarse camaraderie to silent intimacy.