The Laburnum Top
The Laburnum Top
TED HUGHES
TED HUGHES
The Laburnum Top
The poet describes a beautiful sunny autumn day. The laburnum tree’s
top is silent and still. It is laden with yellow leaves and yellow flowers in
September. Its leaves have turned yellow as its autumn season and all its
seeds have fallen. The tree was standing still and death-like.
Trillings -to sing a series of
Startlement –amazement. Chitterings-sound made by baby birds. quickly repeated high notes.
Sleek- smooth. Tremor-shaking.
Just then a goldfinch(yellow bird) alights on the Laburnum tree making short, high- pitched
sounds. The goldfinch has her nest in the tree and her chicks are resting in the nest. On the
mother’s return, a sudden movement stirs the tree. The life-less tree suddenly becomes alive. The
tree is her shelter. She arrives at the end of the branch with a chirping sound. She enters with
great care so that no predators can know where her nest is housed in the tree. 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 suddenly becomes alive and it trembles and shakes.
Trembles and thrills – shakes violently.
Stokes-adds fuel(here the goldfinch is feeding her chicks).
Flirts- moves abruptly or jerkily with light steps.
Barred – striped.
The goldfinch has been called the engine of her family. Just as the engine starts up the machine,
her arrival in the nest has suddenly started up the silent machine(nest) ie the young ones have
started chittering and making noise. By feeding her young ones, she has added fuel to the
machine and as a result the chicks now have the energy to be active and make noise.
After feeding her chicks, the goldfinch flies up and rests on the end of a branch of the tree, her
identity concealed behind the yellow flowers and yellowing leaves.
- TED HUGHES
Eerie- strange in a frightening way or mysterious way.
Launches - flies.
Subsides to empty- become silent just as earlier(death-like).
Metaphor: A figure of speech where a word or phrase is used to represent something else.
Eg- ‘engine of her family’ (engine represents the mother goldfinch and machine represents her
brood of chicks).