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

1) The speaker is lying in a hammock looking at the nature that's surrounding him.
2) The person in the hammock is very observant. He notices the colors and sounds of the things he sees/hears. He may be a returning guest, but he does not live at the farm.
3) He notices the small things that most people would find insignificant and explains them. He does more than just say the generalized statement like "oh, there's a butterfly." I know that he's a guest because of the title (...William Duffy's Farm...) and because farm work is constant and continuous. There is no end to farm work, so if he worked/lived there he would be working instead of lying in a hammock.
4) The title lets me know who the speaker is (a guest at a farm), what he's doing (lying in a hammock), where he is (on a farm in Pine Island, Minnesota), and who he's there to see (William Duffy).
5) The speaker notices all the small things: the colors, the sounds. He sees a bronze butterfly resting on the black truck of a tree, swaying, like a leaf blowing in the wind. He hears repeating cowbells from a place down the river, which is behind an empty house. To his right he sees two pine trees and a patch of sunlight where horse droppings from the year prior are reflecting the golden rays of the sun. He relaxes further as the day begins to fade. He sees a chicken hawk soar overhead.
6)a) As the poem progresses, the speaker is describing what he sees and hears, but he is also letting us know how he feels about his own life. "Over my head" could mean that the speaker is unsure of what exactly is going on in his life. "Asleep" could be taken to mean that the speaker is young or doesn't have a clear view of life as it is while it's occuring. The butterfly blowing like a leaf could be a symbol of his life being shaky and uncertain, like he's at a crucial point in his life or he's doing something he's never experienced before. The empty house could symbolize that his life isn't as full as he wishes it was, maybe he's been restricted from doing something he wanted to or the opportunity hasn't arose yet. The afternoon that he is observing could be symbolic of his life, that he's middle-aged now and starting to get older and maybe a little wiser. The fact that there's a field of sunlight between two pine trees to his right might be saying that he's at a point where he has to make an important decision and he can see what he thinks is the right choice, but in reality it's nothing spectacular. Those "golden stones" he sees are the right choice, but really they're "droppings," or not a good choice. The darkening evening might be saying that the speaker is near death. The chicken hawk floating overhead is searching for a home much like a soul looking for a place to go after the physical death of its host body.
6)b) The succession of ideas is, in a way, much like the natural progression of life. In the beginning of the poem the speaker is young and uncertain ("over my head" and "asleep") and his life isn't as full as he wishes it could be ("empty house"). The speaker is then referring to being older ("afternoon") and a difficult choice, maybe a mid-life crisis of sorts, where he can see what he thinks is the correct choice ("field of sunlight between two pines"), but that supposedly correct choice isn't always what it seems to be ("droppings of last year's horses blaze up into golden stones"). Then the speaker is talking about getting older, getting the hang of things and settling into his life, understanding the rhyme and reason of things ("I lean back, as the evening darkens and comes on"). At the end of the poem the speaker is at the end of his life and his soul is searching for a home ("chicken hawk floats over, looking for a home").