Summary of "The Laburnum Top" Class XI
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» Summary of "The Laburnum Top" Class XI:-
The poem starts with a description of the Laburnum tree whose top was still and silent. Its leaves had turned yellow and seeds had fallen down. It was a daytime in the month of September when the tree was standing still and death-like.
The life-less tree becomes alive by the arrival of the Goldfinch bird. She came to feed her younger ones who are on the thickness of the branch. The tree is her shelter. She arrives at the end of the branch with the chirping sound. 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 becomes alive and it trembles and shakes.
After feeding them, she flies to the other side of the branch. Her dark coloured face with the yellow body was barely visible as she vanished behind the yellow leaves. She flew away in the sky, leaving the tree death-like again.
Summary of The Laburnum Top
The poet describes his experience of what he witnesses in the Laburnum tree. It begins by describing how the leaves of the tree are yellow. Moreover, he notices that 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 colour and the sunlight. Over here, yellow represents silence, death and beauty. Thus, he uses this colour and describes the whole setting perfectly.
After that, he notices that the death-like scene of the tree comes to an end when a goldfinch bird perches on it. The tree makes a sudden chirrup sound upon the bird’s arrival. He compares the quickness, speed and alertness of the bird to that of a lizard.
When she starts moving towards the thickness of the branch, the nestlings start chirping and flapping their wings. Thus, due to this movement, the tree also starts shaking and thrilling. Thus, we notice how the poet gives two contrasting scenarios while describing the tree. First was that it was death-like and then it gains life after the bird lands on it.
Further, the poet finally realizes that the goldfinch bird and the tree are the engines of her family. When she brings food for the little birdies, she moves to the end of the other branch. He describes the bird’s appearance. It has a striped face which is dark in colour.
After that, her body is yellow and thus blends in with the yellow leaves of the tree. Finally, after reaching the branch end, she makes a rather sweet chirping sound. The poet compares this sound to whispering as she flies away in the limitless sky. Thus, after the bird leaves the tree, the Laburnum tree once again becomes silent and death-like.
Conclusion of The Laburnum Top
To sum up The Laburnum Top summary, we learn about the sweet and nurturing relationship between the tree and the bird and how they both play such important roles in their lives