Question

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

Answer 1

The poem begins on a very melancholic note. The laburnum is described as standing silent and still. There is no sign of movement. The leaves of the tree have started turning yellow and the seeds have already fallen. It indicates the season of autumn.

At the end of the poem, the laburnum is left silent once again. This time the silence brings in a note of emptiness in the poem after all the commotion that the goldfinch causes. When she leaves the tree, ‘the laburnum subsides to empty’.