A Song For Occupations - "This is Unfinished Business With Me"

I found this poem striking as it differs from Song of Myself in that it uses less of Walt's classic me, me, me talk and focuses more on the YOU. I suppose in a song FOR the occupations it would have to be more about the you anyways, since Walt's favorite occupation was, of course, loafing.

Throughout the course of the poem's career the name was changed several times. It started out unnamed, and then evolved into Poem of the Daily Work of the Workmen and Workwomen of These States in 1856, Chants Democratic in 1860, To Workingmen in 1867, Carol of Occupations in 1872, and finally A Song for Occupations in all subsequent editions. But the title was not the only change made to the poem throughout the various years of updating. The poem itself underwent numerous changes as well. First of all there are the various punctuation differences: the addition and subtraction of various dashes, the addition of parentheses around lines. These changes add to tone and style, making the poem mean different things to each reader as they are able to pause and reflect at punctuation marks as they please. But the punctuation almost seems unnoticeable when comparing the first version of the poem to the last.


When looking at the poems side by side you would notice that the words in the poem change drastically. While the 1855 edition opens with "Come closer to me" a warm embrace from Walt asking you to heed his gentle call, some of the later editions begin opening with, "A song for occupations!" which demonstrate Walt's call to arms almost quickly and fiercely grabbing reader's attentions. But he isn't just calling to any reader, he is calling to the working class. I also found it interesting that Walt is not only calling to the working men, but the working women as well. While the earlier of the versions of the poem seem to be subtly calling to the working class to lightly embrace Whitman, the later versions he is calling more specifically to certain workers in less of an embrace, but more of a "wake-up call."