CBSE Class 12 English Keeping Quiet Pablo Neruda Assignment

KEEPING QUIET

Read the following extracts and answer the questions that follow each:

1. Now we will count to twelve

and we will all keep still.

For once 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.

It would be an exotic moment

without rush, without engines,

we would all be together

in a sudden strangeness.

Questions

(a) What does the poet suggest in the first two lines? 1

(b) What does the poet want us to realize through total peace and inactivity? 1 (c) How would we all be together? 1

(d) How is the present-day world in contrast to the world desired by the poet? 1

2. Fishermen in the cold sea would not harm whales

and the man gathering salt would look at his hurt hand. 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.

Questions

(a) What is the poet’s holy wish? 1

(b) How will the few moments of introspection affect the people? 1 (c) Explain the irony in ‘Victory with no survivors”. 2

Answer the following questions in 30–40 words each.

1. Why does the poet want everyone to keep quiet as he counts up to twelve?

2. How does the poet suggest that there is life in nature under apparent stillness? 3. Does the poet suggest total inactivity or death or something else? Give reasons.

4. How do a few moments of introspection affect our lives?

5. What is the ‘exotic moment’? Why?