Keeping Quiet poem class 12

Keeping Quiet explanation

Keeping quite question and answers

About the poet

Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) is the pen name of Neftali
Ricardo Reyes Basoalto who was born in the town of
Parral in Chile. Neruda’s poems are full of easily
understood images which make them no less beautiful.
He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in the year 1971.
In this poem Neruda talks about the necessity of quiet
introspection and creating a feeling of mutual
understanding among human beings.

Before you read

What does the title of the poem suggest to you? What do you think
the poem is about?

Poem

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the Earth
let’s not speak in any language,
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines,
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.


Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victory with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their
brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be
confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with
death.
Perhaps the Earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
to have no truck with : to refuse to associate or deal with, to refuse to
tolerate something

Keeping quite summary

"Keeping quite" is a harmony sonnet composed by the Chilean artist Pablo Neruda. The artist requests that mankind tally numbers from one to twelve - twelve being the quantity of hours appeared in a clock or the quantity of zodiac signs. He demands everybody not to communicate in light of the fact that dialects make boundaries between individuals. The second when everybody quits moving their body will be exceptional and diverse as we have never experienced such a second. 

The artist says that in this time of inertia the anglers would not hurt the whales, the salt gatherers won't hurt their hands, the individuals who are caught up with crushing the nature will receive another methodology towards life, The men who are getting ready for wars and triumph dependent on passings of guiltless individuals will join their adversary and remain in solidarity with them, sitting idle. Nobody will hurt himself or some other individual. Everybody will join together and contemplate upon his demonstrations and understand the consequences of his deeds. 

The writer explains his thought and says further that he doesn't need that individuals should stand inert. He needs that there ought to be no war since he wouldn't like to see trucks loaded down with dead collections of the troopers. He is advancing Universal fraternity and harmony. 

The writer says that everybody is working constantly, to accomplish one's objectives. Individuals are compromised by death and the dread powers them to work perpetually with the goal that they can accomplish everything rapidly. In this distraught surge, they don't understand the repurcutions of their demonstrations. He needs us to delay and come out of the frantic surge. He needs us to be glad about our achivements and commend them. He needs us to conquer the dread of death and to unwind for some time. We should know the consequences of our deeds and praise our accomplishments. 

At the point when the individuals will stay calm for some time, they will understand the motivation behind their lives. Much the same as all the manifestations of nature experience a resurrection with the difference in seasons, similary, staying silent will be a resurrection for the human spirit. It will give another significance to our life. Once more, the writer says that he will check till twelve and requests that everybody stay calm while he leaves.

Keeping quite questions and answers

Think it out Keeping Quiet poem class 12

1. What will counting upto twelve and keeping still help us achieve?
2. Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?
3. What is the ‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?
4. What symbol from Nature does the poet invoke to say that there
can be life under apparent stillness?

Try this out

Choose a quiet corner and keep still physically and mentally
for about five minutes. Do you feel any change in your state of
mind?
Notice the differing line lengths of the stanzas and
the shift in thought from stanza to stanza.