Whiteman's Song for American Workers

I have read numerous Walt Whiteman poems throughout the past six years and have always been fond of how organic in flow his poems are, and how he breaks the boundaries of censorship- Whiteman’s poems enclose every little detail, every fiber of thought, every sort of life experience imaginable is embedded in his poems. Many poets have adopted this “stream of thought concsciousness” and it has now become a non-official “Whiteman” trademark and has been reincarnated in Pablo Neruda’s, William Carlos Williams’, and later, the beats generation. Like Whitman, majority of the beat poets wrote their works without the intention of being censored, and instead included every stream of thought (similar enough to the transcendentalist writers)

One poem that I was inclined by was Whiteman’s “A Song for Occupations,” which is essentially an ode, a celebratory response to the working class. After reading this particular poem a few times over, I thought about the video we saw in class a few weeks ago, which explained that Whiteman wanted to break the academic stigma of poetry and relate it to the common people. His poems, especially, “A Song for Occupations” speaks to the masses, to bring certain injustice social issues to light, and praise the poor, the working class for their everyday struggles, as well as pay homage to this underappreciated group of people. It is through this translation from real world to poetry (or other artistic genres) of social injustices and other humanitarian issues aroused in this time period that Whiteman connects to the masses. Through his eloquent images, passionate discourses, and brilliant language (or more, the flow of the language) that Whiteman’s art is simply not just art, but a form of activism.

Within the first stanza, Whiteman directly addresses the workers, saying that regardless of his education and intellectual stature, he is in admiration of the work these people do, the every-day struggles they encounter, he pushes the boundary further, “Souls of men and women! It is not you I call unseen, unheard, untouchable, and untouching, it is not you I go argue pro and con about, and settle whether you are alive or no, I own publicly who you are, if nobody else owns.” It seems that although at times his tone changes, he does appreciate the workers, and wants to celebrate them, and such appreciation for the workers- more than for the work, itself- often appears throughout other pieces of “Leaves of Grass.”