Close Reading

Close Reading: Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota

In a hammock under the afternoon sun at William Duffy’s farm in Pine Island, Minnesota, James Wright’s speaker appreciatively bears witness to the sights and sounds of nature. After several seemingly small, insignificant natural wonders have been noted, the speaker abruptly brings the pastoral to a close with the stark line, “I have wasted my life.” The afternoon may just as well have been his life and with the sarcastic closing line of his poem he laughs at the absurd misconception of the life of a poet.

Despite the presence of the speaker in the hammock, the poem carries within its …show more content…
There would be less art of every medium and what would remain may be less potent if the artists were not afforded the environment and time they need to feed their creativity and cultivate their work authentically. Individuals like James Wright do not “waste” their afternoons for their craft, they waste their lives. The poet lives a life of reflection on seemingly insignificant things. He forgoes working in the house or tending to the farm for hours of intellectual laziness. As evening closes in, Wright spies a chicken hawk in flight and imagines that it is “looking for home” but who could know why or to where the chicken hawk was flying? Within the poem, even a chicken hawk has purpose in the traditional sense. It is doing something, going somewhere, making measurable progress. The progress of the poet’s work in the hammock cannot be seen or measured but much is nonetheless achieved. The sights and sounds of the afternoon are the fruits of his labour. When evening comes he will take them to the storehouse where he will arrange them across a page in a way that only he