ENGLISH CLASS XI- The Laburnum Top (POEM)

The Poem "The Laburnum Top" is a beautiful

poem by Ted Hughes.
In this poem, the poet has used the Laburnum
tree and goldfinches as a symbol of life and its
fluctuations. He describes the visiting of
goldfinches on the Laburnum tree and how she
has made a nest on it.
When the goldfinches have chicks, it brings alive
the tree as the chicks start to rustle and chirp.
Hughes is trying to convey the message that life is
a process of exchange and transformation. People
are alive because they undergo exchange of
energy.

The goldfinches transform the tree and make it

alive, without the goldfinches and the chicks the
laburnum is just another tree. The poem examines
and articulates the inter relationship between soul
and body through common symbols of bird and
tree.
Though the body and the soul can be separate entities, they are absolutely complementary to each
other-one without the other is incomplete. It is in the interaction between the two lies the beauty,
vigour and perfection of existence.

Thus the poem shows the states of existence both in the separation of the body and soul (beginning
and end of the poem) and the (middle of the poem) union which unmistakably and unambiguously
provides the body-the tree- the vigour and the vitality mandatory for its life and its fulfilment.

There is an imagery of life and sustenance which is transported through the mother goldfinch to her
young ones. She visits her young ones to feed them and assure them that she is there. It portends a
yellow colour in the background of the laburnum leaves which speaks of warm but fading sunlight. It
also indicates that the mother goldfinch has to fly far away at the close of autumn season. She also
has to ensure a warm and secure winter for her young ones.

The laburnum tree symbolizes the pattern of our life in general. Life is seemingly dull and inanimate
but it is the attitude of a person towards life that makes it meaningful and worth living. The goldfinch
brings cheer, happiness and mirth to the simple and inanimate surroundings. Its happiness is
infectious and all encompassing.
Questions:
The Laburnum Top is silent, quite still
in the afternoon yellow September sunlight,
A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds fallen.

Why is the laburnum top silent?

The top of the laburnum tree is silent because the goldfinch nestling(s) in the nest is/are anxiously
awaiting its/their mother’s return with food.

What is the significance of ‘yellow’ in the poem?

As the poem highlights the high security that the mother bird ensures for her babies, yellow has
great implications in the poem. Both the laburnum tree and the goldfinch’s feathers yellow in colour,
the babies escape being noticed by any predator with the camouflaging effect.
How does the laburnum ensure security for the nestlings?
Apart from the popular belief that the laburnum seeds and even its bark and leaves are poisonous,
the laburnum top, rather than its bottom, is a safe area for the nestlings. With the yellow flowers and
the yellowing leaves and a yellow breed of goldfinches, the babies are safer than elsewhere.

Till the goldfinch comes, with a twitching chirrup

A suddeness, 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 of tremor of wings, and trillings-

What happens to the laburnum when the goldfinch mother returns?

On the mother’s return, a sudden movement stirs the tree. Her little ones are excited over her arrival
and they start chirruping.

Why is the goldfinch stealing into her nest?

The cautious mother goldfinch enters the tree with great care that no predator would spot her babies
securely housed in the nest.

What is the machine that starts up with the mother’s entry?

The machine in the poem is the combined effect of the love for mother and for food borne by the
nestlings in the nest along with the excited chirrups that they create to welcome their mother and
their food.

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.

What is the engine of the machine? What is its fuel?

The nest is the engine of the goldfinch family. With the little ones
inside, chirruping and eating and playing with each other, the
mother bird gets her life of it. As fuel to an engine, the goldfinch
family’s fuel is not just the food that the mother brings, it is the
mother’s love as well.

Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings

She launches away, towards the infinite
And the laburnum subsides to empty”

Where does the mother bird fly to?

Probably the mother bird is leaving the babies for more fuel, food, before they grew hungry again.

What happens to the laburnum with the mother’s departure?

With the mother bird’s departure, the laburnum tree shrinks to silence again.
Extra Questions:
1. She launches away, towards the infinite’. Explain the given line.
‘She’ stands for the goldfinch whose arrival on the tree has suddenly transformed it into a
noisy place. After having fed her young ones and having made the tree active and full of life,
the goldfinch flies away towards the infinitely vast sky.
2. Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?
The poet creates the imagery of a machine starting up when the goldfinch arrives in the tree.
The sudden noise and movements produced by the young ones are like the starting of a
machine. The stoking of the engine is actually the act of feeding the young ones and
imparting energy and life into them.
3. Describe the laburnum top.
The leaves of the laburnum top are turning yellow due to the autumn. Its seeds have fallen
and there is a silence prevailing over the tree. There is no movement at all.
4. What happened when the goldfinch came to the laburnum tree?
The arrival of the goldfinch brought about a sudden change in the tree. The young ones
started twittering and there was a lot of noise, commotion and movement on the tree.
5. Why has the poem been named ‘The Laburnum Top’?
The poem has been named ‘The Laburnum Top’ because the top of the tree has been
described in detail by the poet and the second part is a vivid description of the transformation
that the tree undergoes. The entire scenario revolves around the tree.
6. Explain the first three lines of the poem 'The Laburnum Top'.
The laburnum is the tree whose top part is silent due to lack of movement. There is no breeze
and hence there is no rustling of leaves. The time of the day is afternoon. The month is
September, and the season is autumn season. The leaves of the tree have started decaying
and turning yellow as they are about to fall. The seeds of the laburnum fruit have also fallen.
7. How is the tree transformed during the bird’s visit? Write the line that shows this
transformation.
The tree suddenly starts trembling and moving as if a machine has started up. This is due to
the arrival of the goldfinch in her nest in order to feed her young ones. The young ones start
their chitterings. There is a tremor of wings. The line that shows the transformation is ‘a
machine starts up, of chitterings, and a tremor of wings, and trillings- the whole tree trembles
and thrills.
8. To what is the movement of the goldfinch compared? What is the basis for the comparison?
The goldfinch’s movement is compared to that of a lizard. The basis of the comparison is the
sleek, abrupt and alert movements of a lizard. The same kinds of movements are observed
when the goldfinch arrives on the laburnum tree.
9. What does the phrase ‘her barred face identity mask’ mean?
This particular breed of bird has black markings similar to a mask, looking beyond the
physical, it seems to refer to the fact that her family sees her as she truly is. Throughout the
day she may wear many masks, but at the end, you cannot hide the truth.
10. ‘The whole tree trembles and thrills’. Explain the poetic device used by the poet.
The poetic device used is ‘alliteration’. Tree trembles and thrills signify that the arrival of the
goldfinch on the laburnum top is responsible for the movement and the activities on the tree.
The tree has suddenly sprung to life and there is shaking and thrilling movement on it.
Personification is also used as a poetic device in ‘Tree trembles’.
11. ‘It is the engine of her family, she strokes it full.’ Explain the significance of these lines.
The goldfinch has been called the engine of her family. Just as the engine starts up the
machine, her arrival in the nest has suddenly started up the silent machine i.e. the young ones
have started chittering and making noise. The expression 'She stokes it full' means that she
has fed the young ones who now have the energy to become active and make noise.
12. Explain the line ‘And the laburnum subsides to empty’.
This is the last line of the poem depicting the sudden silence which falls over the laburnum
tree when the goldfinch flies away after feeding its young ones. It had been on the tree for
 sometime and the tree had suddenly become lively and noisy but after its departure, the tree
becomes silent again.
13. ‘Then sleek as a lizard and alert and abrupt, she enters the thickness’. Explain the given lines.
The lizard is a quick moving animal. It is also very alert and its movements are jerky and
abrupt. In the same manner, the goldfinch enters in the thickness of the branches of the tree
and feeds her young ones.
14. What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the poem?
The beginning of the poem describes a silent laburnum tree which has no noise, movement or
life. The ending is also similar where the goldfinch flies away into the vast sky. But the middle
part of the poem shows us a totally transformed tree with noise of the young ones compared
to a machine.
15. Why did the goldfinch enter the thickness of the laburnum tree? Quote the line or words that
support your answer.
The goldfinch entered the thickness of the laburnum tree because it had to reach its nest
where its young ones were waiting to be fed by her. The lines that support the answer are ‘a
machine starts up’, ‘of chitterings and a tremor of wings and trillings’.’

The Laburnum Top presents a reciprocating relationship between the laburnum tree and the
goldfinch, a small bird with yellow feathers. The goldfinch arrives in her nest, built on the top of the
laburnum tree, to feed her young ones.
The poem begins with the description of the laburnum ‘top’. On a September afternoon, the top of
the tree stands silent and still. The leaves of the tree have started turning yellow and the seeds have
already fallen. The scene depicts the season of autumn.
The silence of the tree is broken with the sudden arrival of the goldfinch. The bird arrives at the end
of the branch with a chirrup. Her entry into the thickness of the branches is sleek, alert and abrupt
just like that of a lizard. As she arrives, it seems as if a machine (that had been silent till then) has
started up as the young ones of the goldfinch are filled with excitement and start creating noise on
the arrival of their mother. They sing, chirp, twitter, and create commotion. With their chirrups and
movements, the whole tree comes alive and it ‘trembles and thrills’. Thus, it becomes the engine of
her family. She feeds the young ones and, after feeding them, flies to a branch-end, peeping out her
dark-coloured striped face.
Finally, with a whistle-chirrup, she heads towards the vast sky leaving the tree once again with
emptiness.
How would you elucidate the poem “The Laburnum Top” as a nature poem?
Ted Hughes was one of the very important poets in the latter half of the twentieth century. His
special contribution to English poetry lies in the creation of a poetic world with a central interest in
wild animals and birds. His poetic inspiration is born out of and focused on the peculiar but intimate
influence that animals of forests, trees and the sky have on a sensitive human spirit.

Ted Hughes has applied all his poetic grandeur in his very powerful poem “The Laburnum Top” in
which the laburnum symbolizes the hardships in life. The poem describes the laburnum tree whose
seeds have not only fallen but also the leaves have turned yellow. It is an afternoon in September
and the tree top is silent until a goldfinch appears. As soon as the goldfinch appears, there is a
sudden strong tremor in the tree; there are noises of twitching of wings and chirping in bird
language. The whole tree trembles. The engine of the bird’s family has appeared that is the mother
goldfinch has brought food for her babies. The movement of the goldfinch is like a lizard, sleek and
smooth. She is the engine of her family, which means she is working to provide nutrition to the
family just like the engine is the major part of a machine. In the end, the goldfinch again launches
herself in the sky in a mysterious way and the laburnum is reduced to silence and emptiness again.

Here the poet has taken the natural like the laburnum tree, the goldfinch bird in order to aestheticize
his poem with the tinge of natural beauty. The presence of the tree itself from the beginning to the
end has kept his existence intact throughout. Like the other Hughes’ poem “The Thought Fox’, this
poem too internalizes the broader humanistic attitude with ease through the natural figures like the
fox, the laburnum tree, the goldfinch etc. so, it can be well considered as a nature poem.

How does the laburnum tree play a central role in the poem “The Laburnum Top”?
In the very title the name “laburnum” is predominant and it is putting forward the whole idea of the
poem “The Laburnum Top”. The whole action in the poem is revolving around the laburnum tree
itself. It is like the pivot around which the lives of the birds are circling round. The tree is the
confluence where both the beginning and ending are getting mingled with each other. At the very
beginning the poem describes the laburnum tree whose seeds have not only fallen but also the
leaves have turned yellow. In the afternoon of September the tree top remains silent until a
goldfinch appears. As soon as the goldfinch appears, there is a sudden strong tremor in the tree;
there are noises of twitching of wings and chirping of bird language. It is the stimuli what led the
entire tree to tremble. After the collection of food the goldfinch with its entire family it again
launches itself in the sky in a mysterious way and the laburnum is itself in the sky in a mysterious
way and the laburnum is reduced to silence and emptiness again. Thus the laburnum tree plays a
central role in the poem “The Laburnum Top”.