RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 2 The Laburnum Top

RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 2 The Laburnum Top

Text Book Questions and Answers

Find out

Question 1.
What laburnum is called in your language.
(Answers will vary)

Question 2.
Which local bird is like the goldfinch.
Answer:
Birds which sing melodiously like the goldfinch in India include the Asian Koel, the Bulbul, the House Sparrow, the Himalayan Cuckoo, the Swallow and so on.

Think it out

Question 1.
What do you notice about the beginning and the ending of the poem?
Answer:
The beginning of the poem is about the silence and stillness of the laburnum. The end of the poem again drifts into silence and emptiness of the laburnum.

Question 2.
To what is the bird’s movement compared? What is the basis for the comparison?
Answer:
The bird’s movement is compared to that of a lizard. The basis for the comparison is the sleek, alert and abrupt movement with which the bird enters its nest. This movement of the bird is comparable to that of a lizard.

Question 3.
Why is the image of the engine evoked by the poet?
Answer:
The poet evokes the image of an engine because as soon as the goldfinch enters its nest on the laburnum top, the whole tree comes alive with the chirruping of the young ones of the bird, their twittering and the tremor of their wings. As an engine brings a seemingly dead machine to life, so the chittering family of the goldfinch brings the whole tree into life.

Question 4.
What do you like most about the poem?
Answer:
Open-ended question. Here is a suggested answer: I like the depiction and the imagery in the poem. The poet creates a mundane yet beautiful picture of a tree top that goes through stages from being silent to alive and drifts back into silence again. The imagery of an engine bringing alive a machine is also something that catches my fancy.

Question 5.
What does the phrase “her barred face identity mask” mean?
Answer:
The phrase refers to the face of the bird that is covered with fur of different colours and which looks like a mask making it the identity of the bird.

Note down

1. the sound words
Chirrup, machine starts up, chitterings, whistle-chirrup whisperings, trillings, engine, stokes it full, subsides to empty.

2. the movement words
Seeds fallen, sleek as a lizard, enters the thickness, tremor of wings, tree trembles and thrills, flirts out to a branch-end, she launches away.

3. the dominant colour in the poem.
The Laburnum tree has yellowing leaves, sitting still in the afternoon yellow sunlight. The goldfinch, a bird full of yellow feathers flies on to its branches to sit and sing. The dominant colour in all the descriptions in the poem is yellow.

List the following

Question 1.
Words which describe ‘sleek’, ‘alert’ and ‘abrupt’.
Answer:
Sleek – Smooth, Polished, Effortless
Alert – Watchful, Careful, Brisk, Active
Abrupt – Hasty, Quick, Sudden, Rushed

Question 2.
Words with the sound ‘ch’ as in ‘chart’ and ‘tr’ as in ‘trembles’ in the poem.
Answer:
Words with ‘Ch’ – Chirrup, Chitterings, Whistle-Chirrup
Words with ‘Tr’ – Tremor, Trillings, Tree, Trembles, Thrills

Question 3.
Other sounds that occur frequently in the poem.
Answer:
‘St’ – Still, Startlement, Starts up
‘-ings’ – Chitterings, Wings, Trillings, Whisperings

Thinking about language

Question 1.
Look for some other poem on a bird or a tree in English or any other language.
Answer:
Other poems on birds and trees include “Ode to a Nightingale” by John Keats which describes the beauty in the bird’s song, and “Hawk Roosting” by Ted Hughes which looks at a Hawk overlooking its domain to prey upon.
(Answers will vary)

Try this out
Write four lines in verse form on any tree that you see around you.
(Answers will vary)

RBSE Solutions for Class 11 English Hornbill Poem 2 The Laburnum Top, Study Learner