Summary of Poem The Laburnum Top Hornbill CBSE Class 11 NCERT English
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.
During the afternoon of an autumnal September sunlight, the highest part of the Laburnum tree is silent, calm and quiet. A few of its leaves are turning yellow but all its seeds have fallen. Suddenly a goldfinch comes at a branch end. Its sudden chirping sounds break the silence. Then quite watchfully and smoothly like a lizard, she suddenly enters the middle part of the tree. Then the tree is filled up with a series of short, quick high pitched chattering sounds, shaking movement of wings and repeated short sounds.
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.
It seems as if a whole machine has started working. The whole tree shakes slightly and feels excited. Perhaps the goldfinch has made her nest there and she feeds her young ones. This engine of her family responds to her call and after stoking it, she moves out in a short time and goes to the branch end where her face remains partly visible—the bars on her face serve as mask for her identity. Then with mysterious and frightening, light pleasant soft sound of whistling and chirping she shoots forward towards endless heaven. Once she rises towards God’s abode (the infinite) the laburnum tree becomes calmer or quieter and it seems to be empty.
NCERT Solutions of The Laburnum Top by Ted Hughes