laburnum-top-explanation.pdf
- 1. THE LABURNUM TOP - Ted Hughes PRESENTED BY PREETIMA KHANDELWAL
- 2. ABOUT THE POET Ø Born in Yorkshire, England. Ø Edward James Ted Hughes was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Ø His poetic inspiration – Focused on the intimate influence that animals of forests, trees and the sky have on sensitive human spirit.
- 3. INTRODUCTION u The poem revolves around a Laburnum tree and a Goldfinch bird. u The poem consists of three stanzas written in free verse. u The events of the poem take place over a period of a few minutes.
- 4. THEME The Laburnum Tree gives shelter to the bird and its young chicks . The bird, in turn, takes away its dead silence. Thus the poet wants to tell the importance of co-existence.
- 5. STYLE Ø The poem is written in free verse. Ø As it is in free verse, there is no fixed rhyme scheme
- 6. VOCABULARY u Laburnum: The Golden Chain tree. A commonly found tree with golden flowers that hang in bunches. u Goldfinch: A small, yellow bird. u Twitch: Small, often involuntary movement of a body part u Chirrup: An onomatopoeic word capturing the sound made by a bird u Startlement: Amazement, a sudden unexpected action which causes surprise u Sleek: Smooth. In the context of the poem, it could imply a quick movement without much disruption. u Abrupt: Sudden or unexpected u Chitterings: bird sounds u Tremor: Shiver, shake
- 7. VOCABULARY u Trillings: Singing repeatedly. In the context of the poem, an onomatopoeic word, capturing bird sounds. u Stokes: Adds fuel. In the context of the poem, the goldfinch feeds its family, providing the fuel (nutrition) that the machine (the bird's family) needs to be energetic u Flirts: In the context of the poem, move abruptly or jerkily with light steps u Eerie: Strange in a frightening or mysterious way u Infinite: In the context of the poem, the sky u Launches: In the context of the poem, flies u Subsides: Returns, reduces in intensity
- 8. VALUE POINTS FROM THE POEM u The poem is about a mutually beneficial relationship between Laburnum Tree and the Goldfinch bird. u At first, the Laburnum tree is silent and still. It looks empty and quiet. u Mother Goldfinch arrives at the Laburnum Top to feed her young ones and the tree becomes alive. u Goldfinch is sleek, abrupt and alert like a lizard. u The Poet compares the return of the mother to an engine starting and setting a machine in motion. u The mother bird then heads out to the end of a branch and flies off and the tree becomes silent again.
- 9. EXPLANATION- STANZA 1 The Laburnum top is silent, quite still In the afternoon yellow September sunlight, A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds fallen. In the above lines, the poet says that during the afternoon of an autumnal September sunlight the top most part of the Laburnum Tree is calm, without any movement. The leaves of The Laburnum Tree are turning yellow and also the seeds have fallen down. The poet has used the word ‘yellow’ for leaves and sunlight. Yellow symbolizes silence and beauty.
- 10. KEY WORDS OF THE STANZA
- 11. EXPLANATION- 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 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. 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. Her little ones are excited on her arrival and start up with short, quick high pitched chirrupings. The chicks shake their wings actively with repeated short chittering sounds. The mother enters the tree with great care so that no predator can come to know that her babies are housed in the nest. The poet has compared the alert, abrupt and sleek movement of the Goldfinch with that of a lizard. 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) i.e. 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.
- 12. KEY WORDS OF THE STANZA
- 13. EXPLANATION- STANZA 3 Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings She launches away, towards the infinite And the laburnum subsides to empty. The goldfinch makes a strange short, high-pitched sound. After some time, she flies away towards the infinite sky. The Laburnum tree becomes calm and quiet again as it was before the arrival of the Goldfinch.
- 14. KEY WORDS OF THE STANZA
- 15. POETIC DEVICES u Alliteration- repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of two or more consecutive words. September sunlight, tree trembles u Simile – Comparision between two things using like or as .“Sleek as a lizard”- The goldfinch’s movement is compared to that of the lizard because she was abrupt, sleek and alert. u Metaphor – An indirect comparision between two things. “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.”- The engine is the source to run the machine. The bird is compared to the engine as she is the feeder of her family. As a machine cannot work without an engine, her family can’t last without her.
- 16. POETIC DEVICES u Onomatopoeia- Resonate the sound of the bird- Chirrup, whisperings, chitterings, trillings- u Personification - where animals, plants or even inanimate objects are given human qualities – resulting in a poem full of imagery and description. “The whole tree trembles and thrills.”- The attribution of personal nature characteristics to non-humans. u Transferred Epithet- “her barred face identity mask”- It means the transfer of adjective from one noun to the other. The flowers of Laburnum are barred (having bars, striped). But here it is placed before the bird’s face. When the bird sits behind the flowers, the shadow on her face looks like she’s wearing a mask that has bars on it.
- 17. IMPORTANT TO KNOW The treetop is still and remains silent even in the month of September. Due to the autumn season, the tree has lost all its leaves and the seeds are on the ground. Most noteworthy, the poet uses ‘yellow’ to describe both, the leaves color and the sunlight, yellow represents silence, death and beauty. The tree makes a sudden chirrup sound upon the bird’s arrival. Thus, due to this movement, the tree also starts shaking and thrilling. Finally, After the bird leaves the tree, the Laburnum tree once again becomes silent and death-like.
- 18. THANK YOU