CBSE Class 12 English Flamingo Keeping Quiet Pablo Neruda Assignment Set B

About the Poet

Pablo Neruda was the pen name and, later, legal name of the Chilean poet-diplomat and politician Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. He derived his pen name from the Czech poet Jan Neruda. Neruda won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

Theme

The poet, Pablo Neruda, urges mankind to cease all activity for a little while. During these few moments of silence and inactivity, all human beings would be one, united, and in harmony with each other and nature. This togetherness and oneness is most desirable for the survival of the Earth and of human beings. Neruda believes that the soul housed within the human body is capable of performing this feat if given a chance to shine out through introspection, for which absolute silence and stillness is essential.

Form

Keeping Quiet is written in blank verse and has no rhyme scheme. Justification of the Title The title itself suggests that the poet emphasises the importance of silence. Pablo Neruda urges mankind to cease all activity and to introspect. It is necessary to introspect so that we realise that we must stop the killing, the destruction and the harm that we are creating. He encourages his readers to live together in peace and harmony.

Message
‘Keeping Quiet’ leaves a message of universal brotherhood and peace. It urges people to stop all sorts of aggression, including that towards the environment. If we think of ourselves as the hands of the clock on the face of this Earth, moving in our routine ways, won’t it be a good thing to stop at twelve and do some introspection?

Summary

The poet urges people to get into a mode of total inactivity for some seconds. There should only be silence, no movement and a mood of introspection. He condemns the mundane activities. He says that we should not indulge in any mindless activity or speak in any language, nor does he want any gestures of arms that can distract or disturb. He says that we should commit ourselves to complete silence and inactivity. He appeals to the readers to keep quiet for a count of twelve. The number twelve is significant of the time and the months of the year.

The poet tells us not to ‘speak in any language’ and not to ‘move our arms’. To stop wars and destruction, man must put down his weapons. He has also used words like ‘once’ and ‘one second’ as he is appealing to the reader to do something that they have never done before.

This moment of complete inactivity would be an extraordinary, memorable or cherished moment. There would be no rush, no noise and no disturbance. Man would not have to cope with the fast pace of life. This would be a profound moment of bonding and togetherness. There would be complete relaxation of mind, body and soul. Man will be united with the rest of the world by a common link of peace. The poet talks about a metaphorical concept when he says that fishermen would not harm marine life. ‘Cold sea’ denotes the coldness of fishermen who do not bother about protection of sea life and in moments of inactivity they would not be able to disturb the sea animals. The salt gatherers would also stop to look at their calloused hands that hurt due to this activity. They too, would pause to think about their mindless activities and their effects. The poet feels that the whole speculation of wars and their destructive qualities would be negated during those moments of silence. ‘Green wars’ refers to environment degradation caused by human activities, ‘wars with gases and fires’ refers to wars fought with nuclear and bio weapons. Man may get the satisfaction of being victorious but ironically, wars leave behind no survivors. Those who wage wars would be cleansed of all the murk and dirt from their minds. They would then walk about with other individuals and exhibit amity, brotherhood and harmony. They would do nothing to harm mankind or nature.

The poet does not wish to advocate total inactivity or silence, which may be misunderstood and confused with death. Life continues to remain what we make of it. If we were not so concerned about keeping our lives active, i.e., doing things mindlessly and waging wars. We perhaps would not lose sight of our goals. Our desire to achieve goals makes us single minded and desperate. It is then that we lose all perspective. The poet feels that silence for a while might alleviate sadness from our lives. Quiet productivity in place of all activities is desirable. The end of all activities does not mean death but just a break from the monotony of a stressful life.

The poet, in the last lines, feels that we can learn a lesson from the Earth. It can teach us how silence is productive. The Earth appears calm and quiet but is actually nurturing life. Things may die but are reborn and the cycle goes on because the Earth brings forth new life. The poet appeals to all human beings to make an effort to keep/quiet. He has initiated the state of inactivity and now it is the human beings who can carry on with this idea while he makes a quiet exit.

Poetic Devices

Symbols
‘Count to twelve’ – symbolizes a measure of time. The clock has twelve markings on it and the year has twelve months. ‘Fishermen in the cold sea…hurt hands’-symbolic image showing how man is ruthlessly destroying nature for his selfish needs. The ‘hurt hands’ of the salt gatherer symbolises how he is harming himself by his mindless activities. Fisherman and whale stands for the oppressor and oppressed respectively. The image of the Earth as a nurturer and life-giver. ‘Clean clothes’ symbolizes peace and change in one’s perspective–cleanse one’s soul.

Personification
‘Earth can teach us as when everything’–Earth is personified as a teacher. When the Earth appears to be dead, it is actually dormant and carefully preserving the seeds of life, human beings too need to keep still and quiet to re-awaken the life forces to be productive.

Metaphor
‘Put on clean clothes’ (stanza 5)–to cleanse himself/ remove feelings of hatred, anger and destruction. ‘In the shade’–just as shade protects us from the harsh sunlight, we should protect and shelter each other as brothers.

Irony
Victory with no Survivors

Euphemism
(Euphemism is a word or phrase used in place of a term that might be considered too direct, harsh or unpleasant). no truck with death

Alliteration
sudden strangeness (stanza 3) clean clothes (stanza 5) (Referring to clean minds and bodies)

Transferred Epithet
Cold sea (stanza 4)

Pun
‘arms’ (stanza1) representing the arms of the human anatomy and arms and ammunication

POEM IN A NUTSHELL

Theme
1. The urgent need for mankind to introspect, buy time to start afresh.
2. To put an end to all destructive activities, be at peace, in universal brotherhood.
3. The need to live in peaceful co-existence with nature, to stop harming animals and avoid annihilation of the human race.

Contents

1. The poet counts up to twelve, as a countdown to stop all activities (twelve indicating the twelve markings on the clock/twelve months signifying the passage of time) of the people all over the world, bound in an ‘exotic’ moment as it has never happened before.

2. Fishermen shouldn’t kill whales and man should stop extracting salt which hurts his hands. Men indulging in wars, chemical or otherwise, harming the environment, should stop their destructive activities, should don clean clothes and should be at peace with each other, ‘in the shade’ as against the fiery wars where there would be no survivors.

3. The poet wants productive inactivity, not inactivity per se which would be a death like state. He thinks men are single-minded in following routine, without introspecting and gauging to see where they are going with their lives. There is a vacuum in their lives, a deep sadness as they have no time to ponder over what they want from life.

4. The Earth, he thinks can teach us the need to take a break (as the seeds seem to hibernate in winter, seem dead but come back to life in full force in spring) to resurrect our life and start afresh. After conveying his message, the poet feels he can pass on the mantle of responsibility to the mankind who can follow the path shown by him.

Read the extracts given below and attempt the questions that follow:

1. 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.

Questions

(i) What does the poet appeal for?
Answer: The poet appeals for peace and harmony on the Earth.

(ii) To attain this, what does he expect all of us to do?
Answer: He expects all human beings to be silent, totally inactive and introspect for some time.

(iii) Why does he advocate silence?
Answer: He advocates silence so that human beings could introspect about themselves without any external disturbance.

(iv) What kind of activity does the poet feel man is involved with?
Answer: The poet feels that man is leading a very monotonous and dull existence. He is also engaged in destructive activities that harm himself and nature too.

(v) The figure of speech in ‘move our arms’ is
(a) simile
(b) metaphor
(c) personification
(d) pun

Answer: D

(vi) The poetic device in ‘face of the Earth’ is
(a) simile
(b) metaphor
(c) personification
(d) pun

Answer: C

2. 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.

Questions

(i) What does the poet mean by ‘exotic moment’?
Answer: By ‘exotic moment’ the poet means that this moment will be worth cherishing as it would be extraordinary.

(ii) How could man achieve this ‘exotic’ moment?
Answer: In this exotic moment, man would be able to stop all activities, remain silent and introspect. He would feel enlightened and be in harmony with nature.

(iii) What kind of a feeling would this ‘exotic moment’ evoke?
Answer: It would be an extraordinary moment as man would be at peace with himself and his surroundings. This moment might reduce man’s sadness at having generated negative thoughts.

(iv) What harm do the fishermen do and why do salt gatherer’s hands hurt?
Answer: The fishermen kill the whales and cause their extinction while salt gatherers’ hands hurt due to the coarse and rough texture of the salt causing pain to their hands.

(v) ‘a sudden strangeness’ is a
(a) simile
(b) metaphor
(c) alliteration
(d) pun

Answer: C

(vi) ‘Cold sea’ is a
(a) simile
(b) irony
(c) pun
(d) transfered epithet

Answer: D

3. 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.

Questions

(i) What are the kinds of wars mentioned in the above lines?
Answer: The poet mentions three types of wars, i.e. green wars that man wages against nature and environment. He also mentions wars with gas and wars with fire meaning that man kills other human beings with the help of biological and nuclear weapons.

(ii) What are green wars?

Answer: ‘Green wars’ refers to the environmental degradation caused by man’s mindless activities

(iii) How would the wars affect our lives?
Answer: Apart from the death of thousands of innocent people, war would not leave anyone victorious because there would be no survivors.

(iv) What could be the ideal situation?
Answer: An ideal situation would be one in which human beings would be seen happily walking with others hence depicting a feeling of oneness, unity and brotherhood. There will peace and universal brotherhood.

(v) The poetic device in ‘victory with no survivor’ is
(a) simile
(b) irony
(c) pun
(d) metaphor

Answer: B

(vi) The figure of speech in ‘in the shade’ is
(a) simile
(b) irony
(c) pun
(d) metaphor

Answer: D

4. What I want would 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.

Questions

(i) What does the poet mean by inactivity?
Answer: By ‘inactivity’ the poet means a period of total silence, no work, no disturbance. He visualizes a calm and a quiet atmosphere where man introspects and there is productive silence.

(ii) How is inactivity different from death?
Answer: The poet only wishes for a few moments of inactivity and man be able to reflect on his actions. Death on the other hand, is the end of life, which the poet does not advocate

(iii) What makes us sad and what are we singleminded about?
Answer: We are single-minded about moving on with our lives and focus only on our ambitions and goals. The mechanised lifestyle and the feeling that we cause threat to our own destruction makes us feel sad.

(iv) What does the poet mean by ‘to have no truck with death’?
Answer: The poet wants to have no association with death as death is end of life. He only appeals that we should be more productive and give up endless and futile pursuits that cause unhappiness.

(v) The poetic device used in ‘truck with death’ is
(a) euphemism
(b) simile
(c) irony
(d) metaphor

Answer: A

(vi) ‘Life is what it is about’ the poet is talking about—
(a) activity is the essence of life
(b) life is about death
(c) life is waging green wars
(d) life is total inactivity

Answer: A

5. 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.

Questions

(i) What can the Earth teach us?
Answer: The Earth can teach us how to be in harmony with others while remaining silent and productive

(ii) How does it teach us this lesson?
Answer: The earth continues to nurture life despite all the harm done to it by a man. It silently goes about its work and this is the lesson that we should learn from it.

(iii) How does the Earth ‘prove to be alive’?
Answer: The Earth nurtures life and ensures that the cycle of birth, life and death moves on and the process of regeneration goes on unhampered.

(iv) What is the poet’s appeal?
Answer: The poet appeals to man to make an effort to keep silent for a few seconds and introspect in order to make amends for a harmonious environment.

(v) The figure of speech in ‘the Earth can teach us’ is
(a) simile
(b) metaphor
(c) personification
(d) pun

Answer: C

(vi) What does the poet mean by ‘you keep quiet’?
(a) inactivity
(b) the fishermen will sit in the shade
(c) give man time to reflect and introspect
(d) analyse green wars, wars with gas and wars with fire

Answer: C