Keeping Quiet
Read the extract given below and answer the questions that follow: (4*1)
i) “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(Compartment 2014 Modified)
(a) Whom does ‘we’ refer to in the above lines?
(b) Why does the poet want us to ‘do nothing’ for once?
(c) What is the‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?
(d) How can a huge silence do good to us?
ii) Perhaps the Earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive
Now I’ll count upto twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.
(a) What does the Earth teach us?
(b) What does the poet mean to achieve by counting upto twelve?
(c) What is the significance of ’keeping quiet’? (All India 2013; Modified)
(d) What is always alive, even when everything seems to be dead?
or
(a) What does the Earth teach us?
(b) Why does the poet count upto twelve?
(c) What will keeping quiet help us achieve?(Delhi 2008 Modified)
(d) How does the Earth teach us that there is activity even in apparent stillness?
iii) For once on the face of the Earth
let’s not speak in any language,
let’s stop for one second,
arid 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”? (Delhi 2012; Modified)
(d) How can this moment of stillness help us?
iv) It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines,
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.
(a) What will happen if there is no rush or running of engines?
(b) Why would it be called an exotic moment?
(c) How would we feel at that moment? (Foreign 2011; Modified)
(d) Which poetic device is used in the last line of the extract?
(e) Which of the following is an apt title for the extract?
(i) Without Chaos (ii) The Exotic Movements (iii) The Exotic Moment (iv) Unexpected
Strangeness
(f) The exotic moment will be when everyone is still and ____________________.
(g) Explain ‘Without rush, without engines’.
(i) Presently, everyone seems to be in a hurry
(ii) Mad noise of engines coming from different types of vehicles
(iii) Everyone is involved in multiple activities for material gains
(iv) All of the above
v) 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.
(a) How long does the poet want to stay still?
(b) What does he hope to achieve by keeping quiet?
(c) What does the poet mean by “not move our arms so much”? (All India 2009; Modified)
(d) Why does the poet suggest us not to speak in any language?
vi) Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands. (8*1)
(a) What does the poet expect of the fishermen and why?
(b) While gathering salt, what will the man do?
(c) What do the hurt hands imply? (All India 2008;Modified)
(d) How would man and nature benefit in this moment of silence?
(e) What figure of speech has been used in the first line of the stanza in the words ‘cold
sea’?
(i) Metaphor (ii) Personification (iii) Transferred Epithet (iv) Simile
(f) What do the above lines of the stanza tell us about mankind?
(i) Materialism (ii) Greed (iii) Selfish nature (iv) All of these
(g) How is ‘Keeping quiet’ going to help the man who works as ‘salt gatherer’?
(h) The tone of the poet in the above lines is _____________________.
(vii) 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.
(a) What does the phrase “victory with no survivors” mean?
(i) The bloodshed caused by the result of wars
(ii) Nobody would be able to celebrate the victory of wars
(iii) Degradation of human life
(iv) Both (a) and (b)
(b) Which poetic device has been used in ‘Clean Clothes’?
(i) Metaphor (ii) Alliteration (iii) Oxymoron (iv) Assonance
(c) What do ‘green wars’ refer to?
(d) Identify the phrase from the extract, that suggests the following:
The poet does not promote inactivity or death but wants fraternity.
(viii) Perhaps the Earth can teach us
As when everything seems dead
And later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count upto twelve
And you keep quiet and I will go.
(a) Identify the tone of the poem in the first line of the extract.
(b) Identify the phrase from the extract that suggests the following
The poet thinks that he has said what he intended to say
(c) The poet wants to convey the message that ------------------------------------.
(d) The poet uses a conversational style and personal pronouns ‘you’, ‘we’ and ‘I’ because
-----------------------
(i) He wants to establish contacts easily
(ii) He tries to reach out to the reader
(iii) He wants us to be friendly with the whole mankind
(iv) Third person talking is ineffective
(e) Which poetic device has been used in the second line of the extract?
(i) Alliteration (ii) Transferred Epithet (iii) Metaphor (iv) Paradox
Short Answer Type Questions: (2 marks)
1.Which is the exotic moment that the poet refers to in ‘Keeping Quiet’? (Delhi 2014)
2. What is the sadness that the poet refers to in the poem ‘Keeping Quiet’? (All India 2014)
or
What is the sadness that the poet refers to in the poem? (All India 2011)
3. Which images in the poem ‘Keeping Quiet’ show that the poet condemns violence?
(Compartment 2014)
4. What symbol from nature does the poet use to prove that keeping quiet is not total
inactivity? (Foreign2014)
5. How, according to Neruda, can keeping quiet change our attitude to life?
(Compartment 2014)
6. What are the different kinds of wars mentioned in the poem? What is Neruda’s
attitude towards these wars? (Delhi 2013)
7. How can suspension of activities help? (All India 2012)
8. Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death? (Delhi 2011)
9. According to the poet, what is it that human beings can learn from nature? (All India
2010)
10. What will counting upto twelve and keeping quiet help us to achieve? (Foreign 2009)
11. Why does one feel ‘a sudden strangeness’ on counting to twelve and keeping quiet?
12. Elaborate the significance of number twelve in the poem ‘Keeping Quiet’.
13. According to Neruda, a huge silence can interrupt the sadness of people. Comment with
reference to the poem.
14. ‘Life is what it is all about.’ How is keeping quiet related to life?
