Song For Occupations

Song for Occupations (1855)

Evident in this section is an extension of the dialogic mode/relationship between reader/writer. They are still established as equals. He eroticizes distance and touch, and longs for levels of contact. He shuns “cylinders”— evocative of a manmade object, cold, dividing. I think the frequent ellipses used are suggestive of his democratic method, and are sort of equivalent to the conjunction “and.” They don’t subordinate sections of the sentence; they instead give equal weight to separate parts (I think we’ve discussed this…).  This sprawling form perhaps suggests authentic description.

He offers paradoxes (“usual terms…never the usual terms”) and rhetorical questions in a probable effort to obtain some cosmic truth. Also, he repeats grammatical forms (“If you…”; “Is it you…”), positing the similarities and nearness he shares with the reader. The ordinary is rendered “remarkable, eternal”; it is also absolute, and definitive.

The poem is partly concerned with immutable connections between reader and writer, but this is extended to all persons. In a country grappling with racial/ political divisions, unity of self and other is a frequent concern, and probably requisite for an authentic democracy the likes of which Whitman espouses. 

There is a civil rights emphasis on granting subjectivity to foreigners and women.

So many small, different scenes and aspects of life are presented, perhaps to show the variety and beauty of our possible existences that, at an initial glance, seem mundane. Whitman says to not think less of yourself if you are not a scholar, or to feel unwise if you have no education/training, but ushers in these images to give them poetic space and beauty; to let people know their lives are the stuff of poetry.

1856 brings a new title: Poem of The Daily Work of The Workmen and Workwomen of These States.  This suggests more specificity and resonance; it includes the female's in general hitherto-excluded voice) Ellipses have been replaced with commas and dashes. Cleaner, neater typographical presentation is presented (Walt makes use of indentations.).  The text is possibly more readable, and certainly less sprawling.

He alters some of the language, but doesn't change meaning greatly. Interestingly, he adds this self-reflexive moment to the list of jobs and job-utensils:

the compositor's stick and rule, type-setting, making up the forms, all the work of newspaper counters, folders, carriers, news-men

1860 brought another revised title to this section: “Chants Democratic (3).” Perhaps Whitman, in doing this process of manuscript revision, cultivated an appreciation for and linked working with a democratic ideal. Whitman, the loafer, also sees the necessity of all the parts functioning to produce a coherent system; I believe this is the reason for his enumerations.  

In 1871, Whitman retitled the poem “Carol of Occupations.” He explains the title, extending and plainly stating his theme: “In the labor of engines and trades, and the labor of fields, I find the developments, and find the eternal meanings.”It ends without that strange object-veneration part (it has been pushed back and modulated), and instead we see something closer to a restating of his thesis, the divinity of the working men. We also see him employ semi-colons here. This poem is situated in about the middle of LoG. Carol is an evocative word for the title because it often has a religious resonance, and Whitman is singing here of the divinity of the common man.

In 1881, the title “A Song for Occupations” was restored. It is a slightly more condensed version, and ends in the manner of previous editions (excluding '71). I also did not notice any semi-colons. Instead of “come closer,” it starts with “A song for occupations!” Perhaps this is done for thematic organization, as he initially states his intention and then develops and extends it. Pushing closer and longing for contact, as it initially began, suggests a poem that will continue to be concerned with that.

In the final edition, the title is preserved, and it appears earlier in LoG. The ending is revised and follows the 1881 edition, not the 1871. The last couple of editions are sprawling in size, much like his intial prose; our poem is just one song among the many songs, as in his frequent lists and his iterations that one thing is as good as any other, and just as worthy of your time.  We can also think of this as having an America-type expanse; thinking of its humble beginnings to the sprawling, effulgent poem that eventually surrounded "A Song for Occupation" and how it might mirror population expanse, diversity, and resilience beyond the war.