THE LABURNUM TOP

By TED HUGHES

Born : Edward James Hughes 17 August 1930

Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, England

Die : 28 October 1998 (aged 68) London,

England
Nationality : English
Spouse(s) : Sylvia Plath (m. 1956; d. 1963)
Carol Orchard (m. 1970)
Children : Frieda Hughes , Nicholas Hughes
Alexandra Weill
Occupation : Poet, playwright, writer

Notable Works : The Thought Fox , Snowdrop , Pike

Hawk Roosting, Crow’s First Lesson, The Blue Flannel Suit,
etc…..
The Laburnum top is silent, quite still

In the afternoon yellow September sunlight,

A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds fallen.

Till the goldfinch comes, with a twitching chirrup

A suddenness, a startlement, at a branch end.

Then sleek as a lizard, and alert, and abrupt,

She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up

Of chitterings, and a tremor of wings, and trillings —

The whole tree trembles and thrills.

It is the engine of her family.

She stokes it full, then flirts out to a branch-end

Showing her barred face identity mask

Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings

She launches away, towards the infinite

And the laburnum subsides to empty.

 Introduction

The poem ‘The Laburnum Top’ is written by Ted Hughes. It is about

a repaying relationship between the Laburnum tree and the
Goldfinch bird. The tree is yellow, silent and death-like and is made
alive by the bird and her young ones. The yellow bird has her
shelter on the tree where she feeds her young ones. But as soon as
the bird leaves to fly in the sky, the tree becomes silent again.

top of the tree, its highest branches

Personification
Laburnum – a short tree
with hanging branches,
The Laburnum top is silent, quite still
yellow flowers, and
Symbol
poisonous seeds
Alliteration
‘yellow’ for flowers,
In the afternoon yellow leaves and sunlight
turning into yellow (symbolizes silence,
death{leaves}, and
A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds fallen.
beauty{yellow flowers})
{Autumn Season}

In the above lines, the poet says that he saw a 1.Which season has been described
in these lines?
Laburnum tree whose leaves were yellow. The
tree’s top is still and silent in the day time of 2. Describe the laburnum tree
September month. It is autumn season and all 3. Name the poem and the poet
the seeds of the tree had fallen. 4. What is the significance of
The poet has used the word ‘yellow’ for leaves ‘yellow’ in the poem?

and sunlight. Yellow symbolizes silence, death, 5. Pick out the poetic device from
and beauty. He describes the whole scene of the the first line of the poem.

tree with this colour. 6. Write the poetic device –

‘September sunlight’.
 Goldfinch : Wild canary - A
onomatopoeia small, yellow bird
Till the goldfinch comes, with a twitching chirrup twitching : sudden jerk
movement

chirrup : a bird making

A suddenness, a startlement, at a branch end. repeated high pitched
sounds
What is the bird’s movement compared to ?
Simile
startlement : feeling or
Then sleek as a lizard, and alert, and abrupt, showing sudden shock

What is the machine that starts up with sleek : Smooth - In the

metaphor (Tree) Nest
the arrival of the bird? context of the poem, it
could imply a quick
She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up movement without much
disruption.
Onomatopoeia Onomatopoeia
abrupt : rapid , sudden or
Of chitterings, and a tremor of wings, and trillings — unexpected

personification Why does the laburnum tree tremble? chittering : to make a

chattering sound
The whole tree trembles and thrills.
trillings : to produce a
chirruping sound
The sudden arrival of the goldfinch with a shrill whistle and flapping of its
wings, to feed its nestlings , makes the whole tree tremble and trill. The
quiet beauty of the laburnum tree, with its golden flowers awakens with the
arrival of the bird. thrills – a sudden feeling of
excitement

A Goldfinch bird comes to end the death-like scene of the tree

The bird’s movement is
and makes a sudden chirrup sound. The bird while being rapid, compared to a lizard. It is
alert and precautiouns like a lizard, sits on the branches of the sleek, abrupt and alert like
tree. As she moved towards the thickness of the branch, her a lizard.
younger ones started chirruping and doing vibrations with wings,
As the bird arrives, her little
making a sound like a machine. Because of the movement of the
one become excited to see
bird and her young ones, the tree starts to shake and thrill. the mother and they start
chirruping and fluttering
The poet has given two opposite scenarios of the tree. The
their wings to get food from
tree first being death-like and still and then giving life and their mother. It seems as
shelter to bird and her young ones. the machine starts up.
 1.What is the stokes – to add fuel to the
engine of the engine
Metaphor
Nest (chicks) machine? What
barred – stripy
is its fuel?
It is the engine of her family. flirts out – lead on to
{In the context of the poem,
Alliteration move abruptly or jerkily with
light steps}
She stokes it full, then flirts out to a branch-
end 1. The nest is the engine of the
Transferred Epithet goldfinch family. With the little
ones inside, chirruping and eating
Showing her barred face identity mask and playing with each other, the
(the mother goldfinch has stripes on her face) mother bird gets her life of it. As
fuel to an engine, the goldfinch
family’s fuel is not just the food
This is an example of the poetic device – that the mother brings, it is the
transferred epithet. The laburnum tree has flowers mother’s love as well.
that fall like bars and when the bird sits behind
the flowers the shadow on her face looks like she
Why is the image of the engine
is wearing a mask that has bars on it. So, barred –
evoked by the poet?
is actually an adjective for the flowers and has
been transferred from there and applied to the As the engine is the source to run
bird. the machine. The bird is
compared to the engine as she is
the feeder of her family. As a
Read more on Brainly.in - https://brainly.in/question/3542256#readmore
The Laburnum tree and the goldfinch bird is the machine cannot work without an
engine of her family. She provides food to her engine, her family can’t last
without her.
young ones and moves to the other branch end.
Her dark coloured striped face is visible as her
body is yellow coloured and hides behind the yellow
leaves of the tree.
Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings eerie – weird and strange

She launches away, towards the infinite whistle-chirrup – gentle

whisper like the chirping of
And the laburnum subsides to empty. the bird
infinite - endless
subsides – diminishes
After reaching the end of the branch, the bird makes a
sweet chirping sound just like whispering and flies away What do you you notice about
the beginning and ending of
towards the infinite sky. It again makes the Laburnum
the poem?
tree silent. The poem starts or opens with
‘silence and stillness’ on the
tree top. The closes with the
emptiness and silence that
returns after the bird has
flown away.

Note down
the sound words
Twitching, chirrup, chitterings,
trillings, whispering
the movement words
Comes, enters, starts up, flirts out,
launches away, tremble, subside
the dominant colour in the poem.
Yellow
List the following
Words which describe ‘sleek’, ‘alert’
and ‘abrupt’.
Lizard, machine, and suddenness
Words with the sound ‘ch’ as in
‘chart’ and ‘tr’ as in ‘trembles’ in the
poem.
Goldfinch, branch, chitterings,
chirrup, trillings, twitching, tremors
3. Other sounds that occur frequently
in the poem.
‘ing’ sound in words like twitching,
chitterings, wings, trillings,
whisperings
Prepared by : Mrs Thajunnisa B
Dept of English
Sharjah Indian School