Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota
By James Wright 1927–1980
Over my head, I see the bronze butterfly, 1
Asleep on the black trunk, 2
Blowing like a leaf in green shadow.
3
Down the ravine behind the empty house,
The cowbells follow one another
4
5
Into the distances of the afternoon.
6
To my right, 7
In a field of sunlight between two pines, 8
The droppings of last year’s horses 9
Blaze up into golden stones. 10
I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on. 11
A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home. 12
I have wasted my life. 13
James Wright’s prose poem “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in
Pine Island, Minnesota” is a poem of reflection. The speaker contemplates his natural
surroundings in Pine Island which begins with the butterfly immediately above and
moves
through ravines and fields, ultimately arriving at the image of a chicken hawk soaring
overhead where he concludes he has “wasted [his] life.” The natural imagery in
conjunction, with prepositions, and sound devices create an emphasis on the theme that
one can fritter away one’s life and miss the real pace of the world as set by nature.
Wright relies on natural imagery * and in particular the movement it creates to
show the slow pacing and contemplative side of nature and suggest that man should
imitate it. The speaker mentions the butterfly “asleep on the “black trunk,” the image of
which suggests the quietus of nature (ll 2). Similarly, Wright creates the image of the
sauntering line of cows which is represented in the metonymy of “cowbells follow one
another into the distances of the afternoon.” In addition to the image of cows idling
home, Wright, also uses sound imagery here with the lollygagging thunk of the brass
cowbell. He continues the animal imagery with “the droppings of last year’s horses”
(ll 9). Now, one does not usually associate horse dung with slow pacing, but the
stillness of the “stones” along with the connotation of time elapsed with “last year’s
droppings” also creates a sense of lingering (ll 9-10). The effect of the turtling of
nature influences the speaker who then “leans back” in his hammock (a symbol of
leisure) and observes one last “float[ing]” image of the chicken hawk. The collective
natural images of ease and relaxation work on the speaker who upon taking them in
concludes that he has “wasted [his] life” (13). With images such as these, one could only
come to the conclusion that the unexamined life (in this instance through
contemplation and leisure) is not worth living.