94. The Laburnum Top (29)


The Laburnum Top

Introduction
     Ted Hughes has been born in 1930. He died in 1998. His first volumes of poetry are The Hawk in the Rain (1957) and Lupercal (1960). He poetry shows his tremendous fascination to nature, animals and birds. He shows the close affinities of men with nature in his poetry. His poetry has been said to deal with mortality. The desire of freedom and power are coincidences for both the animal and the human life.
     His other volumes have been Hawk Roosting, Wodwo, Crow: From the Life and Songs of the Crow, Tales from Ovid: Twenty-four Passages from the Metamorphoses, Birthday Letters and For the Unfallen.

Summary
     The Laburnum Top is written by Ted Hughes. It is a 20th century poem. The poet was born in 1930 and he died in 1998.
    The poem deals with man in relation to nature. Industrialization in England led poets to look at things from traditional ways. They choose common themes, which were in relation to nature. This poem also deals with similar features.
     The poem is a simple event in a tree in which a bird comes for a moment, joins it and then goes away.
     The laburnum top is silent. In an afternoon, yellow, September, a goldfinch bird suddenly comes and enters its thickness. The tree becomes like a machine ignited with the movements by the bird and its young ones. The tree looks like an engine in movement. The bird’s family is in that tree. So there forms an intimate relation of the bird, its family with the tree. The identity of the tree also looks changed. The bird then flies away towards the infinite sky. And the tree becomes silent again.
     There are themes of nature, identity and the interrelationship in the poem as shown by the poet.
     It is written in simple language. It is a short poem.
     It however carries very meaningful sublime message. It is man in relation to the nature around him. It is nature within nature.

Word Meanings
Twitching – sudden, rapid movement
Chirrup – series of sharp sound made by bird or grasshopper
Trillings – vibrating sound made by the voice or in bird song
Strokes – warms it as in furnace
Subsides – coming down to normal

  1.       “The laburnum top is silent, quite still
               In the afternoon yellow September sunlight,
              A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds fallen.”
(a) From which poem the quoted stanza has been extracted? Who is the poet?
Ans- The mentioned stanza is taken from the poem “The Laburnum Top.” The poet of the same poem is Ted Hughes.
(b) Describe the September afternoon.
Ans- The September afternoon has become yellow with sunlight, due to the affect of sun rays.
(c) Where have the seeds gone?
Ans- The seeds of the laburnum have all fallen down.
(d) (i) The Laburnum top is silent.
     (ii) A few leaves yellowing.

  1. “Till the goldfinch comes, with a twitching chirrup
         A suddenness, 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-”
(a)    How does the arrival of the goldfinch bring about a difference?
Ans- The arrival of the goldfinch in the laburnum branch end brings a sense of suddenness and startlement to the tree. The laburnum experiences movements and sounds, from silence.
(b)   Describe the movement of goldfinch.
Ans- The movement of the goldfinch is compared to the thin movement of the lizard. The movement of the goldfinch is alert and abrupt.
( c) Why is the bird compared to a lizard?
Ans- The bird is compared to a lizard, because it is as thin or sleek as the lizard. Its movement is also as fast as the lizard.
(d)   Find a word in the passage that means “sound loud sounds”.
Ans- The word is equivalent to, “chirrup”
(e)    How the machine does starts when the bird enters the thickness?
Ans-  As soon as the bird enters the laburnum’s thickness, the tree releases out sounds of chitterings of the baby birds inside the laburnum. The movement of the wings of the goldfinch and its young ones tremors the laburnum.

  1. “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.”
(a)    Why does the laburnum tree tremble?
Ans- The laburnum tree trembles, because of the coming of the goldfinch bird in it. It arrives near its chicks. Together, the mother-bird and its chicks tremble the tree with its movements.
(b)   What does the bird do after stoking the tree?
Ans- After stoking the tree, the goldfinch bird comes out to the end of a branch of the same laburnum tree.
( c) What does her barred face represent?
Ans- The barred face of the goldfinch represents her identity. The branches or twigs must be making her face look barred. It shows the unity and interdependency of the different objects of nature.
(d)    Find a word from the stanza which means ‘covering’.
Ans- The word similar to ‘covering’ is barred.

  1. “Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings
      She launches away, towards the infinite
      And the laburnum subsides to empty.”
(a)    Describe the various sounds of the bird.
Ans- The sounds of the goldfinch bird are variously called as eerie, delicate, whistle and chirrup. Eerie is similar to strange. Delicate is soft. Whistle is equal to music. And chirrup means series of sharp sounds.  
(b)   What happens when the goldfinch flies away?
Ans- As soon as the goldfinch bird flies away, the laburnum tree comes down to silence again.
(c ) Find a word in the stanza that means “calms down.”
Ans- The word, equivalent to “calms down” is subsides.
(d)    What is the meaning of the word “eerie”.
Ans- The meaning of the word “eerie” is strange, unknown or uncommon.

  1. Answer the following questions:
(a)    What is the dominant colour of the poem.
Ans- The dominant colour in the poem is yellow.
(b)   What are the sound words in the poem?
Ans- The sound words in the poem are chirrup, trillings, chitterings, whistle-chirrup whisperings.
(c ) What are the movement words in the poem.
Ans- The movement words in the poem are, twitching, startlement, tremor, trembles, thrills, stokes, launches, and subsides.
(d)   Describe the laburnum tree’s top in the beginning of the poem.
Ans- The beginning of the poem shows the laburnum tree’s top as silent and still.
(e)    Describe the arrival of the goldfinch to the laburnum tree.
Ans- As soon as the goldfinch arrives to the laburnum tree, the silent stage changes into movement and sound. It startles the tree. It physical body is compared to the thinness of a lizard.
(f)    What happens to the laburnum tree when the bird flies away.
Ans- As soon as the bird flies away, the laburnum tree once again becomes silent. The silence is compared to emptiness.
(g)   What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the poem?
Ans- At the beginning of the poem, the laburnum tree is silent. At the ending of the poem, the tree again subsides into normalcy.
(h)   To what is the bird’s movement compared? What is the basis for the comparison?
Ans- The bird’s movement is compared to the lizard. It is compared so, because the goldfinch bird makes its body as sleek as the lizard and enters the tree.
(i)     Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?
Ans- The poet evokes the image of the engine, because with the arrival of the goldfinch bird to the laburnum tree, to its chicks, the silent tree becomes as active as any ignited engine.
(j)     What does the phrase “her barred face identity mask” mean?
Ans- The above mentioned phrase means, the bird becomes one identity with the tree. There is unity among different objects of nature. The face looks barred because of the coming of the twigs, leaves or branches.
(k)   How does the laburnum tree tremble and thrill?
Ans- The laburnum tree trembles and thrills like a large, ignited machine. The movements are compared to the movements of an engine.
(l)     Describe the different sounds and singing of the goldfinch.
Ans- The different sounds emitted out from the tree, with the entry of the goldfinch are chirrup, trillings, chitterings, and whisperings. Chirrup is series of sharp sounds. Trilling is a vibrating sound made by any song-bird. Chitterings means high pitched sounds of the birds. And whisperings are soft sounds, made by the same bird.


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