SETH ANANDRAM JAIPURIA SCHOOL, LUCKNOW

Worksheet 2 (Poem)
KEEPING QUIET
• Use appropriate grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Write neatly and legibly.
• DO NOT write long sentences.
• Punctuate your paragraphs.
• Do not exceed the word limit.
MIND MAP- Poetic Devices with examples from the poem/ theme
REFERENCE TO CONTEXT
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.
a) Why does the poet want us to keep quiet?
b) What does he want us to do for one second?
c) What does he mean by “not move our arms”?
d) How can this moment of stillness help us?

Answer the following in 40-50 words:

a) What is the ‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?
b) What symbol from nature does the poet invoke to say that there can be life under
apparent stillness? Or What symbol from nature does the poet use to prove that
keeping quiet is not a total inactivity?
c) Which is the exotic moment that the poet refers to in ‘Keeping Quiet’?
d) Why does one feel ‘a sudden strangeness’ on counting to twelve and keeping
quiet?
e) How will ‘keeping quiet’ protect our environment?

Answer the following in 100-120 words:

a. How is the poet’s appeal for keeping quiet different from absolute sluggishness?
b. Analyse the importance of the dramatic count to twelve in ‘Keeping Quiet.’
 QUESTION BANK

Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (All India
2009)
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.

How long does the poet want to stay still?

What does he hope to achieve by keeping quiet?
What does the poet mean by ‘not move our arms so much’?
Answer the following in 40-50 words:
a) What is the sadness that the poet, Pablo Neruda refers to in the poem
‘Keeping Quiet’? (All India 2011)
b) What is the exotic moment the poet Pablo Neruda wishes for?
c) What are the different kinds of wars mentioned in the poem? What is
Neruda’s attitude towards these wars?
d) Why does Pablo Neruda want us to count till twelve and keep still?
e) Which images in the poem ‘Keeping Quiet’ show that the poet condemns
violence?
f) How does Neruda use the idea of speaking in the context of keeping Quiet?