Keeping Quiet

Section A

Given below is the Question Bank which has been divided into 3 sections. Answering the highlighted questions of
Sections A and B is compulsory. You may attempt to answer the challenging questions Section C too. Write the
answers in your note book.

1. Who is the poet addressing?

2. Why does he want us to count up to twelve?
3. Why does the poet not wish us to talk in any language?
4. Why does Pablo Neruda tell us to stop all movement?
5. What do fishermen do in the cold seas?
6. What images of war does the poet bring up?
7. How can brotherhood be achieved?
8. What does the poet mean by saying, ‘I want no truck with death’?
9. What does Pablo Neruda mean by mankind being ‘single minded’?
10. What lesson can we learn from the earth?
11. What is ‘sadness’ the poet speaks about? How can we overcome it?
12. Explain: ‘Not move our arms so much.’
13. What does reference to whales indicate?
14. What is the ‘exotic’ moment the poet speaks about? Why does he call it a ‘sudden strangeness’?
15. What are the different kinds of wars referred to by Pablo Neruda?
16. Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?
17. How can suspension of activities help?

Section B

18. How does language act as a barrier?

19. What environmental issue does the poet raise?
20. Which images in the poem ‘Keeping Quiet’ show that the poet condemns violence?
21. What is the symbolic reference to the man gathering salt? How will he hurt his hands?
22. What does ‘victory with no survivors’ signify?

‘Victory with no survivors’ is a paradox- it signifies the futility of war and violence. People fight with one another,
nations engage in wars. In the end, one is defeated, and one survives, but both the sides suffer loss. The cost paid for
it is immense. Victory is meant to be celebrated. It is a joyful occasion, but in War there is no joy, because there are
no survivors to enjoy the moment. This makes victory meaningless- insignificant. The past violence committed on the
earth surface, are enough evidence, to prove that the winners stand to lose equally. There is no meaning of victory,
if there is no one left to celebrate it with. Why does the poet ask us to ‘walk in the shade’?

23. What ‘confusion’ is the poet worried about?

24. What does he mean by, ‘life is what it is about’?
25. How does he interpret the sadness of never understanding ourselves?
26. How does the earth teach us that there is life under apparent stillness?
27. How would man not speaking in any language affect the world?
28. What is symbolic about the image of the fishermen or the man gathering salt?
29. What does the poet not wish us to be confused with? Why?
30. Write the central idea of the poem, “Keeping Quiet”?
31. Analyse the poetic devices that the poet adopts in the poem?
32. How, according to Neruda, can a period of quiet and inactivity change our attitude to life?We will be able to
reflect on our actions- stop unnecessary wars that cause destruction- take care of the Earth, of our
neighbours and ourselves- dissolve all differences and come on one platform and enjoy the peaceful
 moments together- refer to walking in the shade with our brothers- in this period of inactivity the fishermen
would not harm the whales, the salt gatherers will not hurt their hands, those who are busy destroying the
nature will adopt a new approach towards life, the men who are preparing for wars and victory based on
deaths of innocent people, will join their enemy and stand in peace with them no one will harm himself or
any other person

Section C

1. ‘Though it was written in the last century, yet Neruda’s Keeping Quiet is highly relevant in 21st Century also’-
Elucidate- Make a Chart portraying how the poet’s observations are meaningful today.