The Laburnum Top by Ted Hughes

Poet

Ted Hughes was a British poet. He was born on 17 August 1930 in Yorkshire in England. According to the critics, he is the best poet of his generation and one of the greatest writers of the 20^th century. He was married to American poet Sylvia Plath from 1956 until 1963. His last poetic work Birthday Letters (1998) dealt with their relationship. His first collection The Hawk in the Rain (1957) was highly acclaimed. However, probably Crow (1970) was his most significant work. Hughes’s early poetic works dealt with the nature and savagery of animals. He served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1956 until his death in 1998

The Laburnum Top

Ted Hughes

             

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.

Theme

The theme of the poem is rejuvenation of nature and the celebration of energy. The laburnum tree is silent until the goldfinch comes and enlivens the tree with its activities. There are all sorts of sound and startlements. Soon she shoots away into the sky plunging the tree into surging silence.

Style  

Free verse, free from any limitations of rhyme or regular meter

Summary

The Laburnum top is silent, quiet and steel. It is September afternoon full of sunlight. It is autumn season. The laburnum tree is full of yellow leaves. All the seeds of the laburnum tree have fallen.

Soon a goldfinch comes. It starts twitching (moving) and chirping. All on a sudden there is movement in the end of the branch. Just like a lizard, smooth, alert and abrupt, she (mother goldfinch) enters the thick part (foliage) of the tree. A machine of chattering, shaking and warbling starts up on the treetop. The whole tree starts shaking. The nest is the machine and the goldfinch is the engine of her family. She feeds the nestlings as if she adds fuel to the machine. Then moves out to the end of a branch showing her striped (barred) face. Then with a strange soft chirping whistle, she flies away towards the sky. The laburnum tree once again becomes silent

        Word Meanings

1. Laburnum           a small European tree, which has hanging,                                     clusters of yellow flowers followed   

        by   slender pods containing poisonous                 seeds.

2. goldfinch             a small brightly coloured bird with yellow                                     feathers.

3. twitching             moving suddenly and quickly

4. chirrup                short high pitch sound of birds

5. startlement          amazement, surprise

6. chittering            making a twittering or chattering sound

7. tremor                 quiver, slight shaking movement

8. trilling                 repeatedly making short high sound

9. trembles and trills       quivers and shakes

10. engine               goldfinch (mother bird)

11. strokes               feeds the nestlings

12. flirts                  moves abruptly

13. barred                having stripes

               

Poetic Devices

1.       The Laburnum top is silent, quite still  = personification

2.       September sunlight                     = alliteration (sibilance)

3.       chirrup                                        = onomatopoeia

4.       sleek as a lizard                          = simile

5.       and alert and abrupt                    = assonance

6.       machine                          = metaphor ( the nest)

7.       chitterings                               = onomatopoeia

8.       trillings                                   = onomatopoeia

9.       engine                                     = metaphor (mother goldfinch)

10.   she strokes                              = alliteration (sibilance)

11.   whistle-chirrup                               = onomatopoeia

Find out

1. What laburnum is called in your language.

Ans. It is called Amaltas or Indian Laburnum or golden shower tree. It (kanikonna) is the state flower of Kerala. The scientific name of this flower is Cassia fistula

 

2. Which local bird is like the goldfinch.

Ans. According to me, Indian house sparrow has some similarity with goldfinch, however house sparrow is reddish-brown in colour but goldfinch is yellow. Both of them belong to finch family.

Think it out

 

1. What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the poem?

Ans. The beginning and the ending of the poem express the solitude of the laburnum tree. The very first line of the poem depicts the silence of the laburnum top; similarly, the last line concludes in the emptiness, means the silence of the laburnum tree.

2. To what is the bird’s movement compared? What is the basis for the comparison?

Ans. The poet has compared the bird’s movement with that of a lizard. The movement of a lizard is sleek, sudden and abrupt; exactly the goldfinch had the same movements when it perched on the laburnum tree.

3. Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?

Ans. The poet has metaphorically used the goldfinch as the engine of her family (machine). Soon after she feeds (stokes) the family with the energy, there is chittering, tremor and trilling. The whole tree comes to life.

4. What do you like most about the poem?

Ans. Laburnum Top is an exquisite presentation of relationship between the goldfinch and the laburnum tree. I like the way Ted Hughes has brought animal symbolism in the poem to depict the relation between the bird and the tree. The serenity of the environment contrasted with chirpy sonorous sound attracts me a lot.

5. What does the phrase “her barred face identity mask” mean?

Ans. The goldfinch shows her striped face which looks like a mask for her. In fact goldfinch has brown and black  patch of colour on the face like a mask.