Read the poem and answer the questions that follow:
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 fell
Till the goldfinch comes, with a twitching chirrup
A suddeness, 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 of tremor of wings, and trillings–
The whole tree trembles and thrills
It is the engine of her family.
She stokes it fully, 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
Choose the correct alternatives from the options given below:
(a) The Laburnum Top refers to a
(i) bird (ii) tree
(iii) lizard (iv) flower
(b) The season mentioned in the poem is
(i) winter (ii) summer
(iii) autumn (iv) spring
Answer the following questions briefly in your own words:
(c) What is the similarity between the beginning and end of the poem?
(d) How does the coming of the goldfinch change the situation?
(e) How has the poet described the Laburnum Top?
(f) Why has the goldfinch been compared to a lizard?
(g) Explain the line ‘she launches towards the infinite’?
(h) What is the similarity between the goldfinch and an engine?
Find words from the passage which mean the same as each of the following:
(i)creepy/weird (lines 11-15)
(j) endless/unending (lines 12-16)
ANSWERS:-
(a) (b) (iii)
(c) At the beginning and end of the poem, the laburnum tree is silent and still.
(d) While the goldfinch appears, the erstwhile silent and still tree begin to shake. Her babies start chirping and trilling with excitement.
(e) The poet describes the Laburnum top on a September afternoon: a few of its leaves have turned yellow in the autumn season and all of its seeds have fallen. The tree is quiet and still.
(f) The goldfinch is compared to a lizard because when she reaches the tree, she moves like a lizard: sleek, alert and abrupt.
(g) “She launches towards the infinite” implies that the goldfinch again leaves her nest in search of food for her babies. Her task is an endless one, and the world lies endlessly before her.
(h) The goldfinch is compared to an engine because just as an engine provides fuel and energy to a train, the goldfinch provides fuel and energy to her children.
(i) Eerie.
(ii) Infinite.
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