NCERT Solutions for Class 11 English (Hornbill) Poem 2: The Laburnum Top

Complete solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 2 – “The Laburnum Top” by Ted Hughes: an original summary, theme and message, word meanings and every textbook exercise (Find out, Think it out, Note down, List the following, Thinking about language, Try this out) answered in full. The questions are reproduced exactly as in the NCERT Hornbill textbook, with detailed, exam-ready answers, plus extra practice, MCQs and Assertion–Reason questions for the 2026–27 session.

Class: 11 Subject: English Book: Hornbill Type: Poem (Poem 2) Poet: Ted Hughes Session: 2026–27
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About the poet

Ted Hughes (1930–1998) was one of the most important English poets of the twentieth century and served as Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1984 until his death. Born in Yorkshire, he is best known for his vivid, energetic poems about animals, birds and the natural world, in collections such as The Hawk in the Rain, Lupercal and Crow. His verse is admired for its precise observation, muscular rhythm and striking images that capture the raw force and beauty of nature. In “The Laburnum Top”, Hughes turns his keen eye on a single small bird visiting a tree, transforming an ordinary autumn moment into a study of life, movement and stillness.

Summary

“The Laburnum Top” describes a brief but vivid moment in nature on a quiet September afternoon. At the start, the laburnum tree stands “silent, quite still” in the yellow autumn sunlight. A few of its leaves are turning yellow and all its seeds have fallen, so the tree seems lifeless, almost asleep – an image of stillness and the fading of the year.

This calm is suddenly broken when a goldfinch arrives. With a “twitching chirrup”, the bird appears at the end of a branch, startling and quick. The poet compares her movements to those of a lizard – sleek, alert and abrupt. She slips into the thickness of the tree to feed her young, and at once the tree comes alive. The poet describes a “machine” starting up, full of chitterings, a tremor of wings and trillings, so that the whole tree “trembles and thrills”. The goldfinch is the “engine of her family”: she energises and feeds the nestlings hidden inside.

After feeding the chicks, the goldfinch flits out to a branch-end, showing her “barred face identity mask” – the distinctive markings that identify her species. Then, with an “eerie delicate whistle-chirrup”, she launches away “towards the infinite”, flying off into the wide sky. With her departure, the laburnum “subsides to empty”, returning to the same silence and stillness with which the poem began. The poem thus moves in a perfect circle, from stillness to a burst of life and back to stillness, capturing the rhythm of nature itself.

Theme & message

The central theme of the poem is the relationship between stillness and life in nature. The tree on its own is silent and motionless; it is the living goldfinch that fills it with sound, colour and movement. Through this contrast, Hughes celebrates how a single creature can transform its surroundings and bring energy to what is otherwise lifeless. A second important theme is the bond between a mother and her young – the goldfinch is called the “engine of her family” because her ceaseless activity sustains her chicks. The circular structure (the tree silent at the beginning and empty at the end) also suggests the cyclical rhythm of nature: life comes, animates the world for a moment, and passes on, while nature continues its endless cycle.

Word meanings

Word / phraseMeaning
laburnuma short tree with hanging branches, yellow flowers and poisonous seeds
topthe upper part / crown of the tree
silent, quite stillcompletely quiet and without any movement
yellowingturning yellow (as leaves do in autumn)
goldfincha small singing bird with yellow feathers on its wings
twitchingmaking short, sudden, jerky movements
chirrupthe short, repeated, high-pitched sound of a small bird
suddennessthe quality of happening quickly and unexpectedly
startlementa sudden shock or surprise (a word coined by the poet)
sleeksmooth, glossy and quick-moving
alertwatchful and ready to act
abruptsudden and quick
thicknessthe dense, leafy inner part of the tree
chitteringsthe rapid twittering sounds made by birds
tremora slight shaking or trembling
trillingsquivering, musical bird-sounds
tremblesshakes slightly
thrills(here) vibrates with sudden excitement
stokesfeeds / fuels (as one feeds fuel to an engine)
flirts outmoves out quickly and lightly
barredmarked with stripes / bars
identity mask(here) the markings on the bird’s face that identify its species
eeriestrange and mysterious
launches awayflies off / sets off
the infinitethe endless, boundless sky / space
subsidesbecomes quiet and still again; sinks back

Find out

1. What laburnum is called in your language.

ANSWERThe laburnum is a tree of cooler, temperate regions, so most Indian languages do not have a separate native name for it; it is usually called by its English name “laburnum”. In Hindi it is often described as “सोने जैसे पीले फूलों वाला पेड़” (the tree with golden-yellow blossoms) because of its drooping clusters of bright yellow flowers. (Write the local name used in your own language; if there is none, note that it is called ‘laburnum’.)

2. Which local bird is like the goldfinch.

ANSWERThe goldfinch is a small, brightly-coloured singing bird. Indian birds that resemble it in size, colour and lively chirping include the baya weaver, the common iora, the tailorbird and small yellow-feathered songbirds such as the black-hooded oriole and the munia. (Name the small, colourful singing bird most common in your own area.)

Think it out

1. What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the poem?

ANSWERThe poem has a circular (cyclic) structure. It begins with the laburnum tree “silent, quite still” and ends with the tree subsiding “to empty” – that is, returning to the same silence and stillness. Between these two moments of quiet, the arrival of the goldfinch fills the tree with sound, movement and life. So the poem moves from stillness to a burst of activity and back to stillness, mirroring the way life briefly animates nature and then passes on, leaving the world calm once more.

2. To what is the bird’s movement compared? What is the basis for the comparison?

ANSWERThe goldfinch’s movement is compared to that of a lizard — “sleek as a lizard, and alert, and abrupt”. The basis for the comparison is the bird’s manner of moving: like a lizard, the goldfinch is sleek (smooth and glossy), quick, watchful and sudden in its movements. It darts swiftly and abruptly into the thickness of the tree, just as a lizard slips quickly and silently across a surface. The comparison highlights the bird’s agility, alertness and the suddenness with which it appears and disappears.

3. Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?

ANSWERWhen the goldfinch enters the tree to feed her young, the poet says “a machine starts up” and later calls the bird “the engine of her family”. The image of the engine/machine is evoked to suggest the sudden burst of energy, sound and constant activity created by the bird and her chitterings. Just as an engine starts with a roar and sets a machine vibrating, the goldfinch’s arrival makes the whole tree “tremble and thrill” with the noise of chitterings, the tremor of wings and trillings. Calling her the “engine of her family” also shows that she is the driving force that powers and sustains her young ones – without her, the family would have no life or movement.

4. What do you like most about the poem?

ANSWER(Sample) What I like most about the poem is the way Ted Hughes turns a tiny, ordinary moment – a single bird visiting a tree – into a vivid picture full of energy and meaning. I especially admire his rich images and sound effects: the comparison of the bird to a lizard, the “machine” and “engine” metaphors, and words like “chitterings”, “trillings” and “trembles and thrills” that let us almost hear the tree come alive. The neat circular structure, moving from silence to life and back to silence, is also very satisfying. (Express your own choice in a sentence or two.)

5. What does the phrase “her barred face identity mask” mean?

ANSWERThe phrase refers to the distinctive black and yellow markings on the goldfinch’s face. These coloured stripes or “bars” look like a patterned mask and act as the bird’s “identity” – just as a mask or a name-tag identifies a person, these unique facial markings identify the bird as a goldfinch. So the “barred face identity mask” means the striped facial pattern by which the goldfinch can be recognised.

Note down

1. the sound words

ANSWERThe sound words in the poem are: chirrup, chitterings, trillings, whistle-chirrup, whisperings (and the suggestive “a machine starts up” / “trembles and thrills”, which also convey sound and vibration).

2. the movement words

ANSWERThe movement words are: comes, twitching, enters, starts up, tremor (of wings), trembles, thrills, stokes, flirts out, launches away, subsides.

3. the dominant colour in the poem.

ANSWERThe dominant colour in the poem is yellow – seen in the “yellow September sunlight”, the “leaves yellowing”, the yellow blossoms of the laburnum, and the yellow feathers of the goldfinch. The colour yellow links the tree, the season and the bird together.

List the following

1. Words which describe ‘sleek’, ‘alert’ and ‘abrupt’.

ANSWERThese three words all describe the goldfinch and its movements:sleek – smooth, glossy, neat (suggests the bird’s smooth, swift body);alert – watchful, attentive, ready to react (suggests the bird’s awareness of its surroundings);abrupt – sudden, quick, unexpected (suggests the bird’s sudden, jerky movements). Together they paint the goldfinch as a sleek, watchful and quick-moving creature, like a lizard.

2. Words with the sound ‘ch’ as in ‘chart’ and ‘tr’ as in ‘trembles’ in the poem.

ANSWERWords with the ‘ch’ sound: chirrup, chitterings, whistle-chirrup, branch, branch-end.Words with the ‘tr’ sound: tremor, trillings, trembles, tree.

3. Other sounds that occur frequently in the poem.

ANSWEROther frequently recurring sounds include:the ‘s’ sound (silent, still, seeds, sleek, suddenness, startlement, subsides) – a soft hissing that suggests stillness and quiet movement;the ‘l’ sound (laburnum, leaves, lizard, alert, trillings, launches, delicate) – a smooth, flowing sound;the ‘t’ sound (top, still, twitching, tremor, trembles) – sharp and crisp, echoing the bird’s quick movements. These repeated sounds (alliteration) add music and rhythm to the poem.

Thinking about language

Look for some other poem on a bird or a tree in English or any other language.

ANSWERMany famous poems celebrate birds and trees. In English, you could read “The Darkling Thrush” by Thomas Hardy, “To a Skylark” by P. B. Shelley, “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats, “The Eagle” by Alfred Tennyson, or “Trees” by Joyce Kilmer. In Hindi, “पंछी, उड़ जाओगी?” by Subhadra Kumari Chauhan is a well-known poem on a bird. Compare how each poet observes the bird or tree and what feelings it inspires. (Read one such poem and note the similarities with “The Laburnum Top”.)

Try this out

Write four lines in verse form on any tree that you see around you.

SAMPLE VERSEThe Neem Tree
The old neem stands at our courtyard’s edge,
Green and calm above the garden hedge;
It shelters the sparrows through the noonday heat,
And drops cool shade at the children’s feet.(Now write your own four lines about a tree you see around you – describe its look, its sounds, or the birds that visit it.)

Extra questions

Short answer

1. In which season is the poem set, and how do we know?

ANSWERThe poem is set in autumn (September). We know this from the “yellow September sunlight”, the leaves “yellowing” and the fact that “all its seeds” have fallen.

2. Who brings life to the laburnum tree in the poem?

ANSWERThe goldfinch brings life to the tree. Her arrival fills the silent tree with sound and movement, and her departure leaves it empty and still again.

3. What does the goldfinch do inside the thickness of the tree?

ANSWERShe feeds her young ones (her nestlings hidden in the tree). Her feeding sets off the chitterings, the tremor of wings and trillings that make the whole tree tremble and thrill.

4. Why does the laburnum “subside to empty” at the end?

ANSWERBecause the goldfinch flies away “towards the infinite”. With the bird gone, the sound and movement stop, and the tree returns to its earlier silence and stillness – it becomes empty and quiet once more.

5. Name two metaphors used in the poem.

ANSWERTwo metaphors are: (i) the goldfinch’s activity compared to a “machine” that “starts up”, and (ii) the bird called the “engine of her family” – both suggesting energy and the power that drives and sustains her young.

Long answer

6. How does Ted Hughes contrast stillness and movement in “The Laburnum Top”?

ANSWERHughes builds the whole poem on a striking contrast between stillness and movement. It opens with an image of complete calm: the laburnum top is “silent, quite still” in the soft yellow September sunlight, its leaves yellowing and its seeds fallen – a picture of a quiet, almost lifeless autumn tree. This stillness is suddenly shattered by the arrival of the goldfinch “with a twitching chirrup”. The poet then floods the poem with movement and sound – the bird is “sleek as a lizard, and alert, and abrupt”, a “machine starts up”, the tree fills with chitterings, a tremor of wings and trillings, and it “trembles and thrills”. After feeding her young, the bird “launches away, towards the infinite”, and the laburnum “subsides to empty”, sinking back into its original silence. Through this movement from stillness to vibrant life and back to stillness, Hughes shows how a single living creature can briefly transform a motionless world, and how nature’s rhythm constantly cycles between calm and activity.

7. Discuss the central idea/theme of the poem.

ANSWERThe central idea of “The Laburnum Top” is the life-giving power of a living creature in nature. The tree by itself is silent and motionless; it is the goldfinch – a small, sleek, energetic bird – that fills it with sound, colour and life. By calling the bird the “engine of her family”, Hughes also celebrates the devotion of a mother who tirelessly feeds and sustains her young. The poem’s circular structure, beginning and ending in silence, suggests the cyclical rhythm of nature: life arrives, animates the world for a brief, vivid moment, and then moves on “towards the infinite”, leaving nature calm and ready to begin again. Thus the poem is a small but rich meditation on energy, motherhood and the endless cycle of life in the natural world.

MCQs & Assertion–Reason

1. Who is the poet of “The Laburnum Top”?

(a) Walt Whitman   (b) Ted Hughes   (c) John Keats   (d) Robert Frost

2. In which month/season is the poem set?

(a) Spring (March)   (b) Summer (June)   (c) Autumn (September)   (d) Winter (December)

3. The bird that visits the laburnum tree is a:

(a) sparrow   (b) goldfinch   (c) nightingale   (d) skylark

4. The goldfinch’s movement is compared to that of a:

(a) snake   (b) cat   (c) lizard   (d) squirrel

5. The goldfinch is called the “engine of her _____”.

(a) flight   (b) family   (c) feather   (d) freedom

6. What is the dominant colour in the poem?

(a) green   (b) red   (c) yellow   (d) blue

7. Why does the goldfinch enter the thickness of the tree?

(a) to build a nest   (b) to feed her young   (c) to hide from a predator   (d) to sleep

8. The phrase “barred face identity mask” refers to the bird’s:

(a) wings   (b) song   (c) striped facial markings   (d) nest

9. At the end of the poem, the laburnum:

(a) blooms again   (b) subsides to empty   (c) falls down   (d) catches fire

10. The structure of the poem can best be described as:

(a) circular (begins and ends in stillness)   (b) a sonnet   (c) a ballad   (d) a limerick

Answer key: 1-(b), 2-(c), 3-(b), 4-(c), 5-(b), 6-(c), 7-(b), 8-(c), 9-(b), 10-(a)

Assertion–Reason – choose: (a) A and R true, R explains A; (b) A and R true, R does not explain A; (c) A true, R false; (d) A false, R true.

1. Assertion (A): At the beginning, the laburnum tree is silent and still.

Reason (R): It is a quiet September afternoon and the goldfinch has not yet arrived.

2. Assertion (A): The goldfinch is called the “engine of her family”.

Reason (R): She is the driving force whose constant activity feeds and sustains her young.

3. Assertion (A): The poet compares the bird to a lizard.

Reason (R): Like a lizard, the goldfinch is sleek, alert and abrupt in its movements.

4. Assertion (A): The dominant colour of the poem is red.

Reason (R): The poem mentions yellow sunlight, yellowing leaves and the yellow goldfinch.

5. Assertion (A): The laburnum subsides to empty at the end of the poem.

Reason (R): The goldfinch launches away towards the infinite, taking the life and movement with her.

Answer key: 1-(a), 2-(a), 3-(a), 4-(d), 5-(a)

Exam tips

How to score full marks on this poem

• Always link your answers to the poem’s key contrast: the tree is still and silent until the goldfinch brings sound and movement, then becomes still again.
• Learn the main poetic devices with one example each: simile (“sleek as a lizard”), metaphor (“machine”, “engine of her family”), onomatopoeia (chirrup, chitterings, trillings), alliteration (“trembles and thrills”) and the circular structure.
• Mention the dominant colour (yellow) and the season (autumn/September) wherever relevant.
• Quote only short phrases from the poem in inverted commas to support your points – do not reproduce the whole poem.
• For value-based questions, link the poem to themes of nature, motherhood and the cycle of life.

FAQs

Who wrote “The Laburnum Top” and where does it appear?

It was written by the English poet Ted Hughes and appears as Poem 2 in the Class 11 NCERT English textbook Hornbill.

What is the main theme of “The Laburnum Top”?

The poem contrasts stillness and life in nature: the silent laburnum tree comes alive when a goldfinch arrives to feed her young, then returns to silence when she flies away. It also celebrates a mother bird’s devotion and the cyclical rhythm of nature.

Why is the goldfinch called the “engine of her family”?

Because her constant, energetic activity drives and sustains her young, just as an engine powers a machine; her feeding makes the whole tree tremble with sound and movement.

Questions are taken verbatim from the NCERT Hornbill textbook; the summary and answers are written originally by ClearStudy, with only short lines of the poem quoted for explanation.

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