Questions

1. Paraphrase the situation This is a poem about a man, sitting in a hammock, and contemplating his life. He reminisces about simplicity: how the butterfly sleeps peacefully, the leaves float in the breeze, an empty house lays undisturbed. Due to the title, which paints a picture of a relaxing afternoon, you at first get the impression this poem is a happy one. In my opinion, it's about a man suffering from extreme inner turmoil because he feels like he's going nowhere. Looking further into the light-hearted images, you find that the leaf is actually floating into a ravine, the house is unoccupied (maybe in an uninhabitable condition), the afternoon is ending, and a bird of prey flies over him, looking for its next meal. Obviously there is more to the poem than meets the eye. 
2. What do you know about the person in the poem I'd assume he isn't a wealthy man, otherwise he wouldn't be sleeping in a hammock on someone else's farm. Also, I think the lazy feeling of this poem is a testament to his character: unmotivated, and until just recently, completely fine with living a humdrum life. 
3. How did you arrive at your conclusions about the person The poem itself is nostalgic, a longing for something bigger. The person who it was written about probably felt the same way. The speaker wants to be apart of something, the same way the cows are leaving together, the leaf was once apart of a tree, the house used to be lived in, the day was still in its adolescence, the horse's were new one year ago, and the chicken hawk is looking for food for its family. 
4. What does the title tell us about the speaker The title is an exact description of the scene the narrator is putting himself in. It puts him in a perspective where he can just watch, and explains why he isn't working on the farm. 
5.  What do you notice about the descriptions of the natural world around him As I stated in the questions above, they are all simple images with much deeper meanings. One way to interpret  them is a very dark meaning: the predator-bird circling overhead, the empty house, the creeping darkness that signals the end of his day. All of these images are not enjoyable ones. Another way to look at it is him seeing the world and how everything has a purpose...yet he sits alone in a hammock. The cows are going home, the horse's fertilize the field, the chicken-hawk looks for food, so he can't help but wonder why he isn't going anywhere. 
6. What is the succession of ideas or feelings conveyed in the poem A man is watching the natural process of nature and is envious of its simplicity. Then, he begins to think about his life, and how it isn't simple at all. He sees the leaves blowing passed, the cows moving on, and the chicken-hawk looking for his home, and the speaker realizes he doesn't have a home to search for. Everything is as old as last-years horses. 
7. Question Six I still stick with what I said above, but instead of trying to fight, it ends the poem with a note of helpless obligation. He doesn't know what to do, and figures that there is nothing that he can do.