AP English: What's the Point?

Of the poem. Not the class :)

When considering James Wright's "Lying in a Hammock At William Duffy's Farm in Pine Islands, Minnesota" without the last line of the poem, the speaker sits placidly in a hammock describing the world around him: a butterfly on a tree trunk, sounds of cowbells, a chicken hawk flying overhead. The speaker seems very observatory, attune to the details such as how butterfly wings are blown by the wind "like a leaf in green shadow". He is a person content, comfortable with him surroundings, which he often describes as "golden", able to "lean back" and fall asleep in his outdoor hammock.

The title alone enforces the relaxed tone of the poem. 'Lying in a Hammock' is a relaxing past-time. The fluid shape, that rocks with the wind, creates the image of a restful afternoon. Farms are often associated with 'simple' ways of life, men being connected to the earth and land. So, the fact that the speaker is on a farm promotes and earthy, raw, satisfied tone in the poem.

Although descriptions of different things going on in the farm seem a little disconnected, it just seems the magnify the images of those separate things.

However, all of these interpretations are made without considering the very last, and perhaps most vital, line of the poem "I have wasted my life". Now let us consider the scene and speaker again.

A solitary speaker watches the world around him (a sleeping butterfly, blown by the wind, cows moving with the herd undirected, a lonely hawk) contemplating the waste of his life. He seems to be a lazy individual, as he lays in a hammock from morning, through the afternoon, and into the evening, rocking in the wind. He mentions 'the empty house', highlighting his lonely life style, perhaps he has no family.

The title sheds light on his life style: a farmer of Minnesota. It clarifies that all the images the speaker is describing, are being watched from a hammock: an insecure (although comfortable) place of rest. As the poem describes the actions of a day, from morning until dark, perhaps it is a reflection of his life, beginning to end, and the title compares his life to 'lying in a hammock'.

All of the speaker's descriptions of the natural world are separated, each an individual image, and often presiding an adjective such as 'bronze' or 'gold', lasting metals. As a farmer, he has a certain connection to the land, perhaps he is seeing himself in these small scenes.

"I see the bronze butterfly, asleep on the black trunk, blowing like a leaf in green shadow." Like a the sleeping butterfly, he is in a state of rest, blown and control by the wind, 'bronze' lasting, in the shadow of 'life' (green).

"The cowbells follow one another into the distances of the afternoon." Men, like a herd of cattle, travel undirected, ringing their bells for the world to hear. Perhaps he feels like he too followed others to the end of his life (afternoon) never really going anywhere beyond 'the ravine'.

"A chicken hawk floats over, looking for home." He is the chicken hawk, floats on the winds, looking for his cause, where he belongs, a place to land, a family.

Like the sun pattern in the course of a day, the poem goes from seemingly warm and open (like the rising sun and 'bronze' butterfly) transferring into a sweating, dreary mood (like the hot summer sun and baking horse manuer) and finally ending in lonely exhaustion (like darkness after the sun has set, a solitary hawk, a wasted life).

Lesson of this exercise: Every line in a poem bears significance. If it didn't, the author would not have included it! So consider the importance of every word choice, every statement, especially the note that the author chooses to end on.