The Laburnum Top

by Ted Hughes
Made by – Pushpendra Singh
PGT English
 GOLDFINCH

Goldfinch – a small
singing birds with
yellow feathers on its
wings
 LABURNUM TREE

Laburnum – a short tree

with hanging branches,
yellow flowers, and
poisonous seeds
 THE POET

Edward James Hughes( Ted Hughes ) was an English

poet and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as
one of the best poets of his generation, and one of the
twentieth century's greatest writers. He served as Poet
Laureate from 1984 until his death.
 THEME
• The first three lines of the poem impress upon
the reader the stillness of the laburnum tree.
A small Goldfinch comes and the tree bursts
with movement and sound.
• • The bird’s family lodges in the thickness of
the tree. The goldfinch enters the tree’s
thickness to feed her young ones and flies
away.
The yellow bird has her shelter on the
tree where she feeds her young ones.
 GIST CONTINUES..
• • The tree becomes silent once again when
the bird flies
• away.
• • The poet has used imagery
• of sound and movement to
• show the tree coming alive
 INTRODUCTION
• • 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 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
sleeks as a lizard, and
alert, and abrupt, she
enters in to the
thickness, and a
machine starts up of
chitterlings, and a
tremor of wings, and
trillings
THE WHOLE TREE TUMBLES…
The whole tree
trembles and thrills.
It is the engine of
her family. She
stokes it full, then
flirt out to a branchend.
Showing her
barred face identity
mask.
EERIE SILENCE…
 EMPTINESS

• Then with eerie

• delicate whistlechirrup
• whisperings.
• She launches away,
• towards the infinite.
• And the laburnum
• subsides to empty.
 THE POEM ….
The Laburnum Top is silent, quite still
in the afternoon yellow September
sunlight,
A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds
fallen.
 EXPLANATION
• In the above lines, the poet says that he saw a
Laburnum tree whose leaves were yellow. The
tree’s top is still and silent in the day time of
September month. It is autumn season and all the
seeds of the tree had fallen.

• The poet has used the word ‘yellow’ for leaves

and sunlight. Yellow symbolizes silence, death,
and beauty. He describes the whole scene of the
tree with this colour.
 THE POEM ….
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 chitterlings, and a tremor of wings, and
trillings —
The whole tree trembles and thrills.
 EXPLN.
• A Goldfinch bird comes to end the death-like scene of
the tree and makes a sudden chirrup sound. The bird
while being rapid, alert and precautiouns like a lizard,
sits on the branches of the tree. As she moved towards
the thickness of the branch, her younger ones started
chirruping and doing vibrations with wings, making a
sound like a machine. Because of the movement of the
bird and her young ones, the tree starts to shake and
thrill.

• The poet has given two opposite scenarios of the tree.

The tree first being death-like and still and then giving
life and shelter to bird and her young ones.
 THE POEM

• It is the engine of her family.

She stokes it full, then flirts out to
a branch-end
Showing her barred face identity
mask
 EXPLN.
• The Laburnum tree and the goldfinch bird is
the engine of her family. She provides food to
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.
 THE POEM ENDS…

Then with eerie delicate whistle-

chirrup whisperings
She launches away, towards the
infinite
And the laburnum subsides to
empty.
 EXPLN.

• After reaching the end of the

branch, the bird makes a sweet
chirping sound just like
whispering and flies away
towards the infinite sky. It again
makes the Laburnum tree silent
and death-like.
 NEW WORDS
• Goldfinch – a small singing birds with yellow feathers
on its wings
Twitching – sudden jerk movement
Chirrup – a bird making repeated high pitched sounds
Startlement – feeling or showing sudden shock
Abrupt – rapid
Chitterings – to make a chattering sound
Tremor of wings – involuntary vibration of the wings
Trillings – to produce a chirruping sound
Trembles – to shake
Thrills – a sudden feeling of excitement
 NEW WORDS
• Flirts out – lead on to

• Stokes – to add fuel to the engine

• Barred – stripy
• Eerie – weird and strange

• Whistle-chirrup – gentle whisper like the chirping of

the bird

• Subsides – diminishes
 POETIC DEVICES
• 1. Alliteration - repetition of a consonant sound at the
beginning of two or more consecutive words. The instances
of alliteration in the poem are as follows-

• September sunlight

• tree trembles

•
• 2. Simile – comparison between two things using like or as.

• Sleek as a lizard
 POETIC DEVICES
• Metaphor – an indirect comparison between two things. Generally, a quality is compared.

• “She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up” - the noise created by the movement of
the birds is compared to the machine’s noise
“It is the engine of her family.”
“Showing her barred face identity mask”

•
• 4. Personification – the attribution of personal nature characteristics to something non-
human

• The whole tree trembles and thrills.

•
• 5. Transferred Epithet – the figure of speech where the adverb is transferred to another noun

• her barred face identity mask

 ASSIGNMENT :

• 1. ‘She launches away, towards the infinite’. Explain the

given line.
• 2. Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?
• 3. Describe the Laburnum tree.
• 4. What happened when the goldfinch came to the
laburnum tree?
• 5. How is the tree transformed during the bird’s visit?
Write the line
• that shows this transformation.
• 6. Explain the line ‘And the laburnum subsides to empty’.
 THE END

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