The picture that James Wright paints in “Lying in a Hammock
at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” is as soothing as it gets.
This is a place where I, too, would just love to take a nap in a hammock. The
images of the bronze butterfly and the cowbells following one another are
simple details of a beautiful place. The last line, however, could mean a few
things. Wright writes, “I have wasted my life.” Could this mean that he has
wasted his life lying in this hammock? Or perhaps he wasted it doing things
other than lying in the hammock, when all along he should have paid better attention
to little beautiful details? Either way this poem does a lovely job of putting
the reader in the scene. Here I am sitting in the library, wishing I was at William Duffy's farm.
I thought that the poem also did a really good job of creating a really soothing environment. The pacing and words used help make the poem itself as calming as the environment it's describing. As for the last line I saw it as the author being upset that he has done nothing but look at beautiful environments.
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