Long ans Flashcards
The arrival of the goldfinch on the Laburnum top brings about a change in the poem. How do you interpret this change? Is change good or bad in life?
At the start of the poem, the top of the Laburnum tree in the poem is silent and still. There is hardly any activity on it as the sunlight falls on it on a September afternoon.
However, with the arrival of the goldfinch, it suddenly becomes a place of feverish activity. The silence of the place is broken by the twittering and chirruping of the chicks and the goldfinch.
I think that the change brought about by the arrival of the goldfinch on the Laburnum top is good, as it breaks the monotony. The tree becomes alive and lively with the movement of the goldfinch and the twitterings and chirrupings of the chicks.
Change can be good or bad in life depending on a situation.
However, the fact is that change is the only constant in life.
So, even if a change is bad, we have to accept it and move on in life.
What values do you learn from the goldfinch in the poem
‘The ‘Laburnum Top?
The goldfinch has its nest on the top of the Laburnum tree in the poem, ‘The Laburnum Top’. Her chicks stay in the nest while she (the mother goldfinch) keeps going out at regular intervals to get food to feed her chicks. This shows her caring nature and highlights the values of motherly care and affection of a mother towards her offspring.
The other aspect of the goldfinch that is captured in the poem is its movement. She arrives at the Laburnum top in a sudden manner and is very much alert to her surroundings. The poet has compared her movement with the sleek movement of a lizard. However, there is a reason for her moving like this (in an alert and sudden manner).
She is moving in this manner so as to avoid getting noticed by any predator. She does not want any predator to know that her chicks are resting in her nest on the Laburnum top as then the predators may kill them or harm them. The values of safety and security for her offspring is highlighted in this act of the goldfinch.
What was the turning point in their friendship?
When the narrator’s parents were comfortably settled in the city, they were sent for them. This shift from village to city was a turning point in the friendship of the narrator with her grandmother. Although they both share the same room, his grandmother no longer came with him to school as the narrator used to go to an English School in a motor bus.
Why did the lesson at the school distress the
grandmother?
The lesson at the school distressed the grandmother as it had no teaching about God and the scriptures. It taught about the western science and learning and had no connection to spirituality or religion. The author’s grandmother could not understand the the western language and hence did not believe in it.
How did the grandmother celebrate the home coming of his grandson?
The grandmother did not pray that evening.
Instead, she collected the women of her neighborhood, got an old drum and started to sing. For several hours, she thumped the sagging skin of the dilapidated drum and sang of the home-coming of warriors. This is how she celebrated her grandson’s home coming.
How did the grandmother die?
The next morning after the narrator came back home, the grandmother was taken ill.
She had a mild fever and the doctor told that it would go. But his grandmother told them that her end was near. She laid peacefully in the bed praying and telling her beads. Even before they could suspect, her lips stopped moving and the rosary fell from her lifeless fingers. The grandmother was no more.
