Keeping Quiet Poem Notes Class 12
Keeping Quiet Poem Notes Class 12
Keeping Quiet Poem Notes Class 12
Pablo Neruda
(Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto)
Nobel Laureate - 1971
The poem “Keeping Quiet” celebrates the necessity of introspection and the
advantage of ‘doing nothing’ for sometime in life.
In the hidden recesses of silence, all digressions disappear for ‘one is with
oneself’ at one’s - peaceful best.
In the vast treasure of deep silence one can find a large resource of peace and
tranquility.
Silence creates an exotic moment, where one forgets one’s differences; wars
come to a standstill and a feeling of brother-hood prevails.
Much of the evil disappears in the depths of a silent and inactive life, for if
man, at one point of time, does nothing, life on earth, can become a heaven
for those moments of life.
Keeping Quiet – Theme/Title
The title “Keeping Quiet” emphasizes the necessity of quiet introspection and
creating a feeling of mutual understanding among human beings.
By keeping quiet, mankind can try to understand itself and stop harming itself
with death and destruction. Thus, the title is very appropriate.
Man is a victim of his own thoughtless activities. Much of the unrest on the
face of the earth is a result of man’s so called progressive nature. Let us not
unnecessarily exploit our natural resources in the name of progress.
Green wars.
The war which man is waging against nature will one day convert this ‘Living
planet’ into a dead one, uninhabitable for human beings. It may be a victory
of man’s scientific knowledge, but there would be no survivors to celebrate
the victory.
Our activities are harmful and disastrous ; we threaten ourselves with death.
The sadness is caused due to our single mindedness towards progress and
not understanding our emotional needs. We need to give up the rat race of
incessant activity pursuing material gains and success.
The subtle change between the first two lines of the poem and the final two
lines
In the first two lines the poet is telling the reader to be still for a count of twelve.
He later goes on to give the reason for this. It was his intention to make the reader
understand the need to stop all destructive, violent, harmful activities, which
spells death for our civilization.
In the last two lines the poet is prepared to leave after having successfully
conveyed his message – his mission accomplished.
The precious moment of quiet introspection has taught the reader the wisdom of
peace and tranquility.
Why twelve
The poet asks us to count till twelve as the
number 12 is an integral part of the
concept of time: the face of a clock has
twelve markings, there are twelve hours in
a day/night.
Poetic Devices
Fishermen in the …….hurt hands:
Symbolism
Clean clothes: Metaphor
Earth can teach us: Metaphor
Exotic: Epithet
Sudden strangeness, clean clothes:
Alliteration