KEEPING QUIET: PABLO NERUDA (trans. Alastair Reid.)/POEM/C B S E 12

And 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.

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would not 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.

POET: 

SUBSTANCE: 

 TITLE:

THEME:

 QUESTIONS:

STANZA 1

1) Name the poem and the poet of the lines.

2) What does the poet want us to prepare for?

2) What should we not do on the earth for a second?

3) What should we not do on earth for a second? Why?.

4) Explain: ‘on the face of the earth’.

STANZA-2

1) What kind of moment it will be?

2) How would we all be together?

3) What will happen if there is neither  rush nor the running of the engine?

4) What all of us will feel at that moment?

STANZA-3

1) What does the fisherman do in the cold sea?

2) How would the whales not be harmed?

3) How are the hands of the man hurt?

4) Find a word in the passage which means ‘collecting’.

5) What does the poet expect of the fisherman and why?

6) What will the men gathering salt do?

7) What do the hurt hands imply?

.STANZA-4

1) What are the different wars mentioned here?

2) Who do prepare such wars?

3) What is the result of such wars?

4) What advice does the poet impart on the war mongers?

STANZA-5

1) What does ‘I’ stand for in the above lines?

2) What is it that should not be confused with total inactivity?

3) What is the life about?

4) With whom does the poet not want to deal with?

5) Explain: ‘‘No truck with the death’’.

STANZA-6

1) What will happen if we go on thinking single-minded?

2) How can we understand ourselves?

3) In what way can huge silence dispel sadness?

4) How shall we be threatening ourselves with death?

STANZA-7

1) What can earth teach us?

2) When everything seems dead, what remains alive?

3) Why is the narrator willing to count up to twelve?

4) What will keeping quiet help us to achieve?

TEXTUAL QUESTIONS:

1) What will counting up to twelve and keeping still help us achieve?

2) Do you think Pablo Neruda 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 involve to say that there can be life under apparent stillness?

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

SHORT ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1) Write down the central theme in the poem ‘‘keeping quiet’’? OR Why does Pablo Neruda asks all the human beings to keep quiet?

2) ‘‘We should neither speak nor move our arms’’. Elucidate.

3) What does the poet call ‘an exotic moment’ and why?

4) How can we understand ourselves?

5) Why does the poet address the ‘fishermen’ and the ‘salt gatherers’?

6) What does Pablo Neruda say about the wars?

7) Why does the poet say that stillness should not be confused with total inactivity?

8) How will ‘counting upto twelve’ and ‘keeping still’ keep us?

9) According to the poet Pablo Neruda what is that human beings can learn from nature?

10) ‘‘We should not be so single minded.’’ Why does the poet say so?

11) What do you say about the title ‘keeping quiet’?

LONG ANSWER TYPE QUESTIONS

1) What does the poet Pablo Neruda aims us to achieve through this poem ‘keeping quiet’?

2) How does the poet Pablo Neruda tackle this sudden strangeness in his poem ‘keeping quiet’?

3) What specific ideas does the poet present before us in the poem ‘keeping quiet’?