Poem - Laburnum Top Class 11 English Hornbill

Key Points of the Poem 

• The poem starts with a description of the Laburnum tree whose top was still and silent. Its leaves had turned yellow and seeds had fallen down. It was a daytime in the month of September when the tree was standing still and death-like.
• The life-less tree becomes alive by the arrival of the Goldfinch bird. She came to feed her younger ones who are on the thickness of the branch. The tree is her shelter. She arrives at the end of the branch with a chirping sound. She further moves to the other side of the branch with rapid and precautionary movement like a lizard. As soon as she arrives, her younger ones start chirping like a machine and vibrating and flapping their wings. The death-like tree becomes alive and it trembles and shakes.
• After feeding them, she flies to the other side of the branch. Her dark coloured face with the yellow body was barely visible as she vanished behind the yellow leaves. She flew away in the sky, leaving the tree death-like again.

Detailed Summary  

The above lines of the first stanza say that the poet has seen a Laburnum Top whose leaves were yellowish and pale. The top of the tree was still and silent like it remains in the month of September. The poem is set in A autumn season and all the tree has shed its seeds and leaves.   The poet has used the word ‘ yellow’ for the leaves and the sunshine. Yellow here in the poem also signifies silence, death, and beauty. He describes the poem and the scene by using the colors of nature.

Stanza 2
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.

A goldfinch bird comes and sets the tree alive by chirping and its motion. The bird with its rapid movement sits at one end of the branch. And as she moved to the other end her young ones start to chirp and make the tree alive . they all make a sound like a moving machine with their flapping wings. The bird’s movement is compared to a lizard.
Because of these movements, the tree got its movements, and it shakes thrills and trembles.  The poet by this meant that being a death-like figure the Laburnum Top has given life and shelter to nurture the little ones.

Stanza 3
It is the engine of her family.
She stokes it full, then flirts out to a branch-end
Showing her barred face identity mask

The tree and the Goldfinch bird is the engine of her family and provides food to their little ones as she moves from one branch to the other. Her dark-colored body with the stripped face is not visible. Her body is also yellow in color and hides behind the branches but her movements make the tree alive and trembles and thrills it.  

Stanza 4
Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings
She launches away, towards the infinite
And the laburnum subsides to empty.

After reaching the end of the branch of the tree,  the bird makes a very sweet chirping sound and it feels like she is whispering and flies away very far from the tree. Leaving the tree again death-like silent and still.

Conclusion  

The poem ‘The Laburnum Top’ is written by Ted Hughes and the poet wants to convey a symbiotic relationship between the Tre and the bird. The tree, as usual, is silent and a death-like figure but as soon the bird comes it gets its life.
The tree provides the bird and her young ones food and shelter and in return, the bird along with her little ones sets the tree in motion by twitching and flapping its wings. As soon as the bird launches away the tree again becomes a still and death-like figure. 

Literary 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
3. 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

Difficult Words

• Laburnum – a short tree with hanging branches, yellow flowers, and poisonous seeds
• 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 – sudden
• 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 vibratory movement; a sudden feeling of excitement
• Flirts out – lead on to
• Stokes – to add fuel to the engine
• Barred – stripy
• Eerie – weird and strange
• Whistle-chirrup – a gentle whisper 
• Subsides – diminishes; vanishes