The laburnum top class - 11

A FREE CONTRIBUTION FOR THE STUDENTS OF CLASS -11

1. THE LABURNUM TOP Ted Hughes By Prepared by - AJIT SINGH , PGT ENGLISH

2. ABOUT THE POET Edward James Hughes   (17 August 1930 – 28 October 1998) was an English poet, translator, and children's writer. Critics frequently rank him as one of the best poets of his generation, and one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was appointed Poet Laureate in 1984 and held the office until his death. In 2008  The Times ranked Hughes fourth on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers  since 1945 .

3. Poem The Laburnum top is silent, quite still In the afternoon yellow September sunlight, A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds fallen.

4. Poem 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,

5. Poem She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up Of chitterings , and a tremor of wings, and trillings — The whole tree trembles and thrills.

6. Poem It is the engine of her family. She stokes it full, then flirts out to a branch-end Showing her barred face identity mask

7. Poem Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings She launches away, towards the infinite And the laburnum subsides to empty.

8. what is Laburnum ? Laburnum, sometimes called golden chain or golden rain, is a genus of two species of small trees in the subfamily Faboideae of the pea family Fabaceae . The species are Laburnum anagyroides —common laburnum and Laburnum alpinum —alpine laburnum. They are native to the mountains of southern Europe from France to the Balkans.

9. what is Goldfinch ? The American goldfinch ( Spinus tristis ) is a small North American bird in the finch family. It is  migratory , ranging from mid-Alberta to North Carolina during the breeding season, and from just south of the Canada–United States border to Mexico during the winter .

10. Stanza -1 The Laburnum top is silent, quite still In the afternoon yellow September sunlight, A few leaves yellowing, all its seeds fallen.

11. Words - Laburnum – a short tree with hanging branches, yellow flowers, and poisonous seeds

12. Explanation - In the above lines, the poet says that he saw a Laburnum tree whose leaves were yellow. The tree’s top is still and silent in the day time of September month. It is autumn season and all the seeds of the tree had fallen.

13. Explanation - The poet has used the word ‘yellow’ for leaves and sunlight. Yellow symbolizes silence, death, and beauty. He describes the whole scene of the tree with this colour .

14. 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,

15. Words - Goldfinch – a small singing birds with yellow feathers on its wings Twitching – sudden jerk movement Chirrup – a bird making repeated high pitched sounds Startlement – feeling or showing sudden shock Abrupt – rapid

16. Explanation - A Goldfinch bird comes to end the death-like scene of the tree and makes a sudden chirrup sound. The bird while being rapid, alert and precautiouns like a lizard, sits on the branches of the tree.

17. Stanza-3 She enters the thickness, and a machine starts up Of chitterlings, and a tremor of wings, and trillings — The whole tree trembles and thrills.

18. Words - Chitterings – to make a chattering sound Tremor of wings – involuntary vibration of the wings Trillings – to produce a chirruping sound Trembles – to shake Thrills – a sudden feeling of excitement

19. Explanation - As she moved towards the thickness of the branch, her younger ones started chirruping and doing vibrations with wings, making a sound like a machine. Because of the movement of the bird and her young ones, the tree starts to shake and thrill.

20. Explanation - The poet has given two opposite scenarios of the tree. The tree first being death-like and still and then giving life and shelter to bird and her young ones.

21. Stanza-4 It is the engine of her family. She stokes it full, then flirts out to a branch-end Showing her barred face identity mask

22. Words - Flirts out – lead on to Stokes – to add fuel to the engine Barred – stripy

23. Explanation - The Laburnum tree is the engine of her family. She provides food to her young ones and moves to the other branch end. Her dark coloured striped face is visible as her body is yellow coloured and hides behind the yellow leaves of the tree.

24. Stanza- 5 Then with eerie delicate whistle-chirrup whisperings She launches away, towards the infinite And the laburnum subsides to empty.

25. Words - Eerie – weird and strange Whistle -chirrup – gentle whisper like the chirping of the bird Subsides – diminishes

26. Explanation - After reaching the end of the branch, the bird makes a sweet chirping sound just like whispering and flies away towards the infinite sky. It again makes the Laburnum tree silent and dead-like again.

27. POETIC DEVICES- Alliteration – repetition of a consonant sound at the beginning of two or more consecutive words. The instances of alliteration in the poem are as follows- September sunlight tree trembles  

28. POETIC DEVICES- Simile – comparison between two things using like or as. Sleek as a lizard

29. POETIC DEVICES- Metaphor – an indirect comparison between two things. Generally, a quality is compared. “ 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.” “Showing her barred face identity mask ”

30. POETIC DEVICES- Personification – the attribution of personal nature characteristics to something non-human The whole tree trembles and thrills.  

31. POETIC DEVICES- Transferred Epithet – the figure of speech where the adverb is transferred to another noun her barred face identity mask

32. THANK YOU….