Pablo Neruda's poem "Keeping Quiet" discusses the need for introspection and mutual understanding among humans. It suggests counting to twelve and remaining still and quiet to experience a moment without noise or movement. This would allow fishermen to stop harming whales and salt gatherers to examine their injuries. The poem criticizes those who prepare destructive wars that leave no survivors. It says that if humans were less focused on constant activity, a period of silence could help reduce sadness from a lack of self-understanding and threat of death through harmful actions. Neruda hopes nature can teach this lesson when seemingly dead things prove to be alive.

1. Keeping Quiet
Pablo Neruda

2. Pablo Neruda, an American poet

3. Pablo Neruda’s Profile
He was born in 1904 in Parral, Chile,
South America. His father was a railway
employee and his mother was a teacher.
He Studied in the University of Chile. He
won Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. In
this poem, Neruda talks about the
necessity of quiet introspection and
creating a feeling of mutual
understanding among human beings.

4. Pablo Neruda recording his poetry at the US Library of Congress in 1966
• Profile

5. Pablo’s first residence in Valparaiso, Chile

6. Pablo’s second residence in Santiago, Chile

7. University of Chile where Pablo studied

8. Universidad de Chile (in Chile Language)

9. Other works
1. Bird
2. A Dog has Died
3. A Lemon
4. A Song of Despair
5. Absence
6. Brown and Agile Chile
7. Cat’s Dream

10. Theme
Necessity of quiet introspection
and creating a feeling of mutual
understand among human beings.

11. Sub - Theme
Horror of war and how they affect the
World peace.

12. Main idea of the poem
In our present day fast-moving lifestyle, we
people are least concerned about our own
inner self and instead keep finding faults in
others. We fail to understand our fellow-
beings and in its place, we develop hatred
towards them. Today, we have reached a
stage where we need to find the cause of
sadness and the void that has filled the major
part of our life. Our lives today are all about
wars and misunderstandings, because we
have no time to look within and introspect.

13. Keeping Quiet – Reading
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.
It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines,
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

14. Keeping Quiet - Reading
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.
Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victory with not survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.

15. Keeping Quiet - Reading
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the Earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

16. Pronunciation
1. Exotic
2. Moment
3. Strangeness
4. Gathering
5. Survivors
6. Inactivity
7. Truck
8. Single-minded
9. Interrupt
10. Threatening

17. Stanza - I
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.

18. Stanza – I Question
1. What does the poet ask people to
do?
2. Why did he ask the people to do so?
3.What will counting upto twelve and
keeping still, help us achieve?

19. Stanza – I Answers
1. The poet asks people to keep quiet
to a count of twelve seconds
without talking and moving.
2. He asked them to do so, so that
they can meditate and introspect.
3. I will help us achieve peace and stop
wars.

20. Stanza - II
It would be an exotic moment
Without rush, without engines,
We would all be together
In a sudden strangeness.

21. Stanza – II Questions
1. What would be an exotic moment?
2. Why would it be and exotic moment?
3. Why would there be a sudden
strangeness?
4. What do you mean by ‘exotic moment’?

22. Stanza – II Answers
1. The moment everything would be still and quiet would be
an exotic moment.
2. It would be an exotic moment because during this time
man would not be hurrying and rushing about and there
would be total silence.
3. There would be a sudden strangeness because man
understands the feelings of his fellow-beings and the
peace would envelop everyone.
4. Man gets used to live in a busy and hurry world. He never
gets a chance of living a peaceful life and never
understands his fellow-beings.

23. Stanza- III
Fishermen in the cold sea
Would not harm whales
And the man gathering salt
Would look at his hurt hands.

24. Blue whale in the cold sea which are killed in large number

25. Caching whale by harpooning with a missile gun

26. The Harpoon reaching the Whale

27. Into the blue ... hunters from the Indonesian island of Lembata catch 20-
metre whales using traditional harpoons and boats, with techniques that
date back centuries.

28. Whale is lifted up after harpooning

29. The caught whale is under the process of taking its fats

30. The skeleton of a whale in a museum

31. Fascinating facts of whales
• Blue whales grow to be about 94 feet (20 m) long on average,
weighing about 174 tons (158 tonnes). The females are larger than
males. It has a heart that weighs about 1,000 pounds (450 kg) and
has 14,000 pounds (6,400 kg) of blood circulating in its body. The
heart is about the size of a Volks wagon bug car. A human could
crawl through the aorta (a major blood vessel).
• The blue whale has about 320 pairs of black baleen plates with
dark gray bristles jaws. They are about 39 inches long (1 m), 21
inches wide (53 cm), and weigh 200 pounds (90 kg). The tongue
weighs 4 tons (3.8 tonnes).
• An average-sized blue whale will eat 2,000-9,000 pounds (900-
4100 kg) of plankton each day during the summer feeding season
in cold, arctic waters ( about 120 days).
• Blue whales are very fast swimmers; they normally swim 3-20
mph (4.8-32 kph). Its sound can be heard around three kilometers
in the sea.
• Blue whales have a life expectancy of 35-40 years.

32. People gathering salt in the salt yard

33. Men gathering salt from the saline water

34. Men standing in the middle of gathered salt

35. Stanza – III Questions
1. What do fishermen in the cold sea do?
2. What do the fishermen do when they are
not quiet and do not introspect?
3. What is the man gathering salt forced to
do?

36. Stanza – III Answers
1. Fishermen in the cold sea catch fish and in
particular the whales.
2. The fishermen in the cold sea endanger the
environment by catching whales.
3. He keeps collecting a large amount of salt
forgetting to even examine the pain he is
causing to himself.

37. Stanza - IV
Those who prepare green wars,
Wars with gas, wars with fire,
Victory with not survivors,
Would put on clean clothes
And walk about with their
Brothers
In the shade, doing nothing.

38. Green war- war with the environment

39. Green wars – war with environment

40. Soldiers fighting the War with poison gas

41. Horse and soldier with Gas Masks to escape poison gas

42. War with fire - fighter planes being shot in the sky

43. War with fire – soldiers pointing their guns toward their enemies

44. Stanza – IV Questions
1. What do mean by ‘green wars’?
2. Who prepares green wars?
3. What are green wars with gas and fire?
4. Explain ‘victory with no survivors’.

45. Stanza – IV Answers
1. It means wars against nature and environment.
2. Politicians and scientists prepare green wars.
3. Wars with gas and fire refer to the chemical
and nuclear weapon.
4. Man fights for victory, but this victory would be
of no use as there would be no survivors to
celebrate his victory.

46. Stanza - V
What I want should not be
confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

47. Stanza – V Questions
1. What does the poet want the people to
do?
2. What does the poet mean by ‘total
inactivity’?
3. What is life all about?
4. Explain ‘ I want no truck with death’?

48. Stanza – V Answers
1. The poet wants people to stop all destructive activities,
meditate, introspect and realise their mistakes.
2. He means a period of time in which nothing is done
worthwhile.
3. Life is continuous process. It must go on.
4. The poet says that when speaks about silence and
introspection, it should not be associated with death.
He does not want to say that.

49. Stanza - VI
If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with
death.

50. Stanza - VI Questions
1. What do you mean by ‘single-minded’?
2. How will a huge silence interrupt this
sadness?
3. Explain ‘this sadness of never understanding
ourselves’.
4. How do we threaten ourselves with death?

51. Stanza – VI Answers
1. It is thinking selflessly only about one’s personal
achievements and progress without involving anyone.
2. In huge silence one will stop all his destructive activities.
He is then forced to think and introspect and helps
himself free from sadness.
3. Man in his pursuit for personal gain has forgotten his
emotional needs. This continuous mindless activity
leaves him sad and lonely.
4. Man indulges himself in destructive activities and this
activities can be responsible for his death.

52. Stanza - VII
Perhaps the Earth can teach us
As when everything seems dead
And later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count twelve
And you keep quiet and I will go.

53. Stanza – VII Questions
1. Who can teach us a lesson?
2. What lesson can mother earth teach
us?
3. Compare the first two lines and the last
two lines of the poem?

54. Stanza – VII Answers
1. Our mother earth can teach us a lesson.
2. Mother earth rejuvenate even after total
annihilation. New life emerges from the dead
remains. Man can also start a new life even after
total destruction.
3. In the first two lines, the poet involves himself by
using the word ‘we’, but in the last two lines, by
using the word ‘I’, he leaves the decision to the
reader.

55. Figure of speech
Alliteration:
It is the repeated beginning sound of two or three
words.
we will
we would
sudden strangeness
hurt hands
wars with
clean clothes

56. Assignments
1. Why does Pablo Neruda urge us to
keep still?
2. Justify the title ‘Keeping Quiet’.

57. THANK YOU