Class 11 English · Hornbill · Poem 2
A clear study guide to Ted Hughes’s poem The Laburnum Top. Read the poem, understand the scene stanza by stanza, learn the poetic devices and vocabulary, and practise the textbook questions and exercises.
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The Laburnum Top – Poem Text
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.
The poem is reproduced here as supplied in the source post. Check punctuation and line breaks against the edition prescribed by your school.
Quick Summary
The poem describes a quiet laburnum tree on a September afternoon. Its leaves are turning yellow and its seeds have fallen. A goldfinch arrives and enters the thick branches where her young ones are. Their chirping and movement fill the tree with sound and activity. The poet compares this sudden activity to a machine starting up. The goldfinch is called the engine of her family because her arrival sets the young birds in motion. When she flies away, the tree becomes quiet and empty again.
Stanza-wise Explanation
1. The tree before the bird arrives
The poem opens with a picture of stillness. The laburnum tree is quiet in the yellow September sunlight. A few leaves are turning yellow, and all its seeds have fallen. The details suggest the autumn season. The poet draws attention to the tree’s silence and the changes taking place in it.
The repeated colour image of yellow connects the sunlight and the changing leaves. The mood is calm and almost motionless. The poet does not say that the tree is dead; it is simply quiet before the bird arrives.
2. The goldfinch arrives
The silence breaks when the goldfinch arrives with a short, quick chirp. Her arrival is sudden. She pauses at the end of a branch and then moves into the dense part of the tree. The poet compares her movement to that of a lizard: it is smooth, quick, alert and sudden.
When she enters the tree, the young birds begin to make sounds and move their wings. The poet describes the sounds as “chitterings” and “trillings” and the movement as a “tremor of wings”. The tree seems to come alive because of this activity.
3. The tree becomes a living machine
The poet calls the tree “the engine of her family”. The young birds inside it are compared to a machine that starts when the mother bird arrives. The goldfinch is the engine because her presence sets off the activity. The phrase “She stokes it full” suggests that she fills the family with energy, probably by attending to the young birds.
After entering the tree, the goldfinch moves out to a branch-end. The poet notices her “barred face identity mask”. This refers to the distinctive barred or marked pattern on her face, which helps identify the bird.
4. The bird flies away
The goldfinch makes a soft, unusual whistle-like chirping sound and flies away “towards the infinite”. The phrase suggests the wide open space beyond the tree, most naturally the open sky. Once she leaves, the tree “subsides to empty”. The sounds and movement stop, and the quiet scene returns.
Central Idea, Themes and Title
The tree provides a place for the goldfinch’s family. The bird’s arrival brings sound and movement to the tree. The poem presents a brief relationship between living things.
The quiet opening and ending frame the lively middle. The contrast makes the bird’s arrival feel sudden and full of energy.
The goldfinch is shown as the active centre of her family. Her arrival sets the young birds into motion.
The scene changes when the bird arrives and returns to stillness when she departs. The activity is brief, but vivid.
Why is the poem called “The Laburnum Top”? The tree is the main setting of the poem. Its upper branches hold the goldfinch’s family, and the change in the tree’s atmosphere gives the poem its shape. The title draws attention to the place where the action takes place.
Poetic Devices and Their Effects
| Device | Example from the poem | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Simile | “sleek as a lizard” | Compares the goldfinch’s quick, smooth and alert movement to a lizard’s movement. |
| Metaphor | “a machine starts up” | Compares the sudden noise and movement of the young birds to a machine starting. |
| Metaphor | “It is the engine of her family.” | Describes the goldfinch as the force that sets her family’s activity in motion. |
| Personification | “The whole tree trembles and thrills.” | Gives the tree a lively, almost human response to the birds’ activity. |
| Onomatopoeia / sound imagery | “chirrup”, “chitterings”, “trillings”, “whistle-chirrup whisperings” | Uses words that suggest the sounds made by the birds. |
| Alliteration | “September sunlight”; “sleek”; “suddenness”; “startlement” | Repeats initial consonant sounds and adds rhythm to the lines. |
| Visual imagery | “yellow September sunlight”; “barred face identity mask” | Helps the reader picture the tree, light and bird. |
| Contrast | The silent opening and the lively middle | Highlights the change caused by the goldfinch’s arrival. |
A phrase can do more than one job. For example, “The whole tree trembles and thrills” creates movement imagery and personifies the tree. In an exam answer, explain the effect rather than only naming the device.
Word Meanings of “The Laburnum Top”
| Word or phrase | Meaning in this poem |
|---|---|
| Laburnum | A small tree known for its hanging clusters of yellow flowers; the poem focuses on its yellowing leaves and seeds. |
| Goldfinch | A small songbird; the bird in the poem is described by its sound, movement and marked face. |
| Twitching | Moving with small, quick jerks. |
| Chirrup | A short, high-pitched bird call. |
| Startlement | A sudden feeling or moment of surprise. |
| Sleek | Smooth and graceful in movement. |
| Alert | Watchful and quick to notice what is happening. |
| Abrupt | Sudden or quick, without warning. |
| Thickness | The dense part of the tree, among its branches and leaves. |
| Chitterings | Short, repeated bird sounds. |
| Tremor | A slight shaking or quivering movement. |
| Trillings | Repeated, musical or wavering sounds. |
| Trembles | Shakes slightly. |
| Thrills | Suggests a sudden feeling of excitement or lively energy. |
| Stokes | Feeds or adds fuel to a fire; here it suggests supplying energy to the family. |
| Flirts out | Moves or darts out lightly and quickly. |
| Barred | Marked with stripes or bands. |
| Identity mask | A distinctive marking on the bird’s face that makes it recognisable. |
| Eerie | Strange or unusual in a way that may cause uneasiness. |
| Whistle-chirrup | A soft, high-pitched sound combining a whistle and a chirp. |
| Launches away | Flies off suddenly. |
| Infinite | Endless or without a visible limit; here it suggests the vast open space. |
| Subsides | Becomes quieter, calmer or less active. |
NCERT “Think It Out” – Questions and Answers
The questions below are reproduced verbatim from the textbook exercise. The model answers are written in simple language for study and revision.
Question 1
What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the poem?
Question 2
To what is the bird’s movement compared? What is the basis for the comparison?
Question 3
Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?
Question 4
What do you like most about the poem?
Question 5
What does the phrase "her barred face identity mask" mean?
All Textbook Questions and Exercises
The following exercise prompts are included for students to attempt. The wording is kept as it appears in the textbook exercise; suggested answers or guidance are added below each task where useful.
Find out
1. What laburnum is called in your language.
2. Which local bird is like the goldfinch.
Think it out
- What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the poem?
- To what is the bird’s movement compared? What is the basis for the comparison?
- Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?
- What do you like most about the poem?
- What does the phrase “her barred face identity mask” mean?
Model answers to all five questions appear in the section above.
Note down
1. the sound words
2. the movement words
3. the dominant colour in the poem.
List the following
1. Words which describe ‘sleek’, ‘alert’ and ‘abrupt’.
2. Words with the sound ‘ch’ as in ‘chart’ and ‘tr’ as in ‘trembles’ in the poem.
3. Other sounds that occur frequently in the poem.
Thinking about language
Look for some other poem on a bird or a tree in English or any other language.
Try this out
Write four lines in verse form on any tree that you see around you.
A neem tree stands beside the lane,
It gives us shade from sun and rain.
Birds rest quietly in its green,
A welcome sight in every scene.
Extra Questions and Answers for Practice
1. How does the mood of the poem change?
2. What is suggested by the phrase “the whole tree trembles and thrills”?
3. Why does the poet use so many sound words?
4. What does “towards the infinite” suggest?
5. How does the poet create a contrast between the tree and the bird?
Test Your Understanding – 12 MCQs
Choose one answer for each question. After you check your answer, the correct card turns green. If your choice is wrong, it turns red and the correct answer is also shown.
What is the setting at the beginning of the poem?
Teacher Insight: What Students Often Get Wrong
Exam Tips
- For a short answer, begin with a direct response to the question.
- Use one or two short phrases from the poem as evidence.
- For a question about sound, mention the relevant sound words and explain their effect.
- For a question about structure, compare the silent opening with the silent ending.
- Avoid long retellings when the question asks about one image or phrase.
