Song(s) For Occupations

This poem... My favorite lines are without a doubt the ones that close the poem:

When the psalm sings instead of the singer,

When the script preaches instead of the preacher,

When the pulpit descends and goes instead of the carver that carved the supporting          desk,

When the sacred vessels or the bits of the eucharist, or the lath and plast, procreate          as effectually as the young silversmiths or bakers, or the masons in their          overalls,

When a university course convinces like a slumbering woman and child convince,

When the minted gold in the vault smiles like the nightwatchman's daughter,

When warrantee deeds loafe in chairs opposite and are my friendly companions,

I intend to reach them my hand and make as much of them as I do of men and
         women. 

        These lines remind me of Karl Marx's writings on how the products and services that workers provide are so often detached from the actual labor involved in bringing said products and services about. Whitman dishes out praise for the workers of the world in his poem, and I can't help but appreciate this poem a lot for that. The last line shows that he wishes to give all praise to the men and women who work to create the world we live in (as opposed to just praising the fruits of our labor). The poem is very inclusive like Song of Myself, aiming to give voice to the voiceless, though Walt focuses on labor here. Our jobs, the work we do, and the products and services we bring are the main stars.
        There's plenty of reasons I appreciate this poem. Here's one reason, and it is the one closest to home for me: I just started school again last semester after taking a break to save up money (so that I could live out here again in the Bay and afford some more school, since my parents were only able to save about $7 for my college fund growing up). During my break I moved back home to Santa Rosa and worked at a Walmart (oh gawd) as a cart-pusher (oh gawd) and saved up every penny I could (oh yeahhh *said in the Kool-Aid Man voice*). I will say that Walmart is the only place that even called me for an interview, so I'll give them credit for that. Now that I've given them that credit, I will say with certainty that it is the worst job I will ever have in my life. And I will treat all cart-pushers I meet from here on out with utmost respect, especially ones at Walmarts.
        Why? I know at other retail and grocery stores it is different, but at Walmart, cart-pushers will be outside for their whole shift, and if your shift is 8 hours long, expect to walk about 12 miles that day in whatever weather the day feels like bringing to you, all while having lots of people inside and outside the store look at you like you're some low-class, lazy, up-to-no-good punk (apparently the perception some people have of cartpushers). But the WORST part of the job?: The detachment... 
        All people see when they walk inside the store is rows of carts for them to shop with. They'd receive my services inside the store every time they'd grab a cart, but never make any contact with me, since I'd be outside fetching more carts. After they finish shopping, a lot of them would take their cart out to the parking lot, put their shit in their car, and ditch the cart right next to where they parked their SUV. A lot of times it will be filled with trash. I saw plenty of McDonalds trash and used diapers in those carts. Never in their minds do they realize that those carts don't magically transport themselves back into the store after they finish using them... THAT was the worst part for me. The detachment.
        I'll stop talking about this job now, because I could write a whole book about all the things that sucked about it. Only way I could have a worse job is if I were a fruit-picker or something. Even I'd be guilty of not thinking about the labor that goes into getting fruits and veggies from the ground and into stores.
        Anyway... I have strong opinions about how labor is viewed, not only here, but around the world. For that reason, I appreciate this poem a lot. I've moved on from that crappy job, moved back to the Bay last September with my Walmart money, enrolled in classes, and found a much better job a few months ago, which means I'll have steady income, which means I'll be able to stay in school :):):)
Very grateful.

1855>1856
First change I notice? The poem now has the title "Poem of The Daily Work of The Workmen and Workwomen of These States." I wonder what the poem is gonna be about??? The changes from the 1855 version are similar to the ones made to Song of Myself... Less ellipses, more commas and dashes. He also added a few lines to the closing part of the poem, which I guess he wanted to beef up a little.


>1860
Here the poem is placed in the Chants Democratic cluster. Still not sure what this whole "cluster" thing is about. Near the beginning of the poem he adds phrases like "Men and Women!," "American Masses!," and "Workmen and Workwomen!" to the beginning of a few stanzas... I guess just to show a little more clearly who the poem is directed to. Walt once again does his fancy-talk thing, like when he changed "July" in Song of Myself into "the seventh month" in later versions, with his talk of December, which he now refers to as "the twelfth month" in this version of Song For Occupations. A bigger change though is that Whitman's talk and mention of the Utahan, Kansian, Arkansian, free Cuban, Mexican native, Flatfoot, negro from Africa, Iroquois, Esquimaux, Chinese, Bedowee, and Tabounschik is now gone. To me, this change is straight-up weird. Walt seemed so comfortable in speaking of different colors and ethnicity before, but not he spread the white-out on top of all of that. I honestly don't know why. Maybe at the time there was so much tension between the white majority population already that he preferred to leave other races out for now and just focus on the internal tension first? That's kind of a wild guess, because I really don't know why he removed that part of the poem.


>1867
The poem now has a title structure common to odes: To Workingmen
Now Walt removes the “polite or whitefaced….married or single…citizens of old states of citizens of new states….” talk that happens before the part where he removed his other removed part about the Utahans and Cubans and Mexicans and negroes and Flatfoots. At this point I just see it as him trimming some fat off the poem, but it's still weird as to why he felt he needed to take that part out.
Then he makes a change that upset me. He moves the closing lines of his poem (the ones I posted above as my favorite) towards the beginning of the poem. Why Walt??? Why?!? I liked them there at the end. They delivered your poem's purpose with force and beauty!
Anyway, he moves those lines, and has a few new lines at the end to wrap up the poem. Heartbreaking.


>1872
The poem is now called Carol of Occupations. Obviously, Christmas was just around the corner when this edition was published. Or something like that. The poem's first line is now the title.


>1881/1891
Poem now called the Song of Occupations... as we know it today. The poem's first line is now this title. Also, he moved the final lines back to where they were in the first three editions! :)
You done good Walt.
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The poem shifts from very near the beginning of LoG (1855, 1856, 1860) to somewhere in the middle in the rest of the versions. I wonder if the poem held more importance to him in the earlier editions to place it near the beginning, or it is just because he had much more material in later versions that he stuck it in the middle on later versions. Later on, it is placed in between other odes that Whitman wrote, and perhaps he liked how Song of Myself and Song For Occupations resonated with his beliefs that he chose to write more poetry to appreciate the world around him. I'm not really sure myself, but I really would like to see what other people think in their blogs.

I love The Simpsons. I love Banksy (who directed this intro). It contains some exaggeration, but it gives a peek into the labor in creating the show.

*I may have gotten confused going through all these versions... My bad if I mixed up any in my reference to them... yep.