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Keeping Quiet
What specific ideas does the poet present before us in the poem ‘Keeping Quiet’?
Pablo Neruda stresses the importance of stillness and the need of quiet introspection. There is a great need of creating a feeling of mutual understanding among human beings. He urges neither to talk nor to make movements of arms. He asks to stop hurry and the working of machines for a moment. He even asks the fishermen and the salt gatherers to stop working. He is against wars because the victory is meaningless without the survivors. Rather he urges the different war-wagers to come together and go out for a walk with their brothers. It will create a feeling of mutual understanding.
The poet further says that we should not confuse stillness with total inactivity. Total inactivity would amount to death as the poet has no association with death. He wants silence for a while which can soothe our feelings and helps us in removing the sadness. We must learn a lesson from the earth which always remains alive though everything seems dead. Thus the life goes on the earth under apparent stillness.
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Read the stanza given below and answer the questions that follow each:
Fishermen in the cold sea would not harm whales and the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hands.
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. Which professions are mentioned in these lines?
5. Find a word from the passage that means ‘collecting’.
The fisherman goes for fishing in:
The whales would not be harmed when:
The skin is injured by:
The professions mentioned in the above lines are:
Read the stanza given below and answer the questions that follow each:
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.
1. In which wars are there no survivors?
2. Who would put on clean clothes?
3. What does ‘put on clean clothes’ signify?
4. How can brotherhood be established in the world?
There are no survivors in:
Clean clothes would be worn by:
Clean clothes would be worn by:
Brotherhood can be established in the world only if:
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