Lying In A Hammock At William Duffy's Farm In Pine Island, Minnesota Questions

1.     Paraphrase Situation

a.     A guy is laying out in the fading sun observing the work life on the farm. Relaxed and calm, the speaker describes the apparently simple farm life. He examines his surrounding quite vividly.

2.     /3  What do you know about the person in the hammock? How did you arrive by your conclusion?

a.     The speaker is, if not obsessed by details, certainly very focused. Describing the cache of sunlight between the trees and the feces of horse with a similar joy. It is clear the narrator views the entire operation wearing pointedly rose-tinted glasses.  He illustrates how things seem to glow golden wherever the sun touches. However, the speaker is also troubled. At the corner of the poem, there are signs of fear. “Shadows”, “empty”, and “darkness” serve to emphasize that not everything is peachy-keen. The narrator cannot help but reluctantly see the dark side of the day. That he cannot concentrate on purely good things for even a moment shows how disturbed the person is.

3.     What does the title tell us about the speaker?

a.     A poem’s title is another aspect of the work, not simply a name as in certain other writings. Lengthy and precise, the title mirrors the poem’s style. It has a wealth of information, but there are two primary pieces. Firstly, we can gather that the farm does not belong to the speaker. “William Duffy’s Farm” indicates someone else owns it. The other very prominent information is “Pine Island, Minnesota”. This snippet lends itself to the idea that the speaker is not native to the farm’s area. Why would someone need to include a precise location if it was near his or her own home?

4.     What do you notice about the descriptions of the natural world around him?

a.     The entire natural world is constantly doing something, be it resting or running. There is no such thing as “doing nothing”. The speaker in this poem consistently describes not just the animal or object, but it’s actions as well. The butterfly is asleep, the chicken hawk floats over, the cows walk around. All of these lend itself to movement and constant change, making the animals in the poem more lifelike and believable.

5.     What is the succession of ideas or feelings conveyed by the poem?

a.     The story line in the poem seems to descend from daylight and brighter thoughts, to darkness and slightly more uneasy feelings. In the beginning, the butterfly is asleep in vivid green foliage. These lines seem saturated with life as the colors are described very conspicuously. Gradually the cows begin to retreat to their nighttime pastures and the sun sinks. Finally the sun sets and a predator comes out to hunt. As the peaceful herbivores retreat, the flesh eating creatures begin to venture out. Often times herbivores are considered food animals and have pleasantly harmless connotations associated with them. Predators are competition and are often seen as fierce and dangerous.

6.     Part two – After reviewing the final lines, answer Q6 again.

a.     The poem seems to indicate a great interest in details. The speaker describes every color and motion, from the sleeping bronze butterfly to the floating chicken hawk, visible. These details appear to clarify the scene, but with it comes a looming shadow. The hints of unease are present in a description of an empty house, the sunlight fading, and the presence of predators as the last golden warmth fades. The last line is a striking conclusion to the poem. It bring to mind the every detail, but in a negative way. Instead of reveling in the detail, the speaker re-represents it all as a waste of time. The narrator seems to condemn and regret the time he spent in observation and therefore poem itself.