Psychoanalytical examination of the poem, Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island

According to Wallingford  (1984), Freud’s techniques enable psychoanalytic examination of literature that gives an insight of the writer’sneuroses when they were writing their poems. A poem is treated as a dream and an analysis of the language, words and symbolism helps critics to reverse engineer the dream in order to arrive at the latent underlying thoughts of the speaker.  The speaker of the poem “Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota” by James Wright is seen as a victim of a dulled purpose and is hopelessly suspended between the choice of alternative courses of action (Spendal, 2010).

Spendal (2010), tells us the speaker shows psychological conflict when he talks of the bronze butterfly. This utilizes the aspect of “free association” that enables a writer escape reality through a projection of his thoughts. The butterfly which is a symbol of metamorphosis portrays the speaker’s concern with change but the use of bronze signifies rigidity of change. Also the sleeping butterfly and it being “blown like a leaf” indicates the lack of will to effect change. The butterfly statement brings the conflict of the inborn capability of change that is kept dormant by sheer lack of willpower (Spendal, 2010).

The speaker shows that he is resigned to his fate when he lies back on his hammock and yields to a floating life. The spatial and temporal references in the poem indicate direction and movement and this is ironic as the change seems to be absent from the speaker’s life (Wallingford, 1984). The poem seems to convey a theme of absence which is shown by the empty house, the field lacking cattle and horses, the hawk being absent from his home and the unconscious butterfly (Spendal, 2010).

Therefore, the poem communicates about the unresolved state of mind of the speaker reflected by the “sunlight between two pines” which may signify the split in opinion of the speaker. The declaration that he has wasted his life signifiesthe speaker is resigned to his fate.

References

Spendal, R.J. (2010) “Review of ‘Lying in a Hammock at William Duffy’s Farm in Pine Island, Minnesota’.” Explicator (May 1976). Rpt. in Literature Resource Center. Detroit: GaleLiterature Resource Center. Web.3 October 2012. Accessed fromhttp://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?&id=GALE%7CH1420008831&v=2.1&u=phoe84216&it=r&p=LitRC&sw=w

Wallingford, K. T.(1984)“The language of the self in the poetry of Robert Lowell.”PhD Thesis.3 October 2012. Accessed from http://scholarship.rice.edu/bitstream/handle/1911/15870/8416569.PDF?sequence=1