KEEPING QUIET BY PABLO NERUDA

 

QUESTIONS FROM TEXTBOOK SOLVED

Q1. What will counting up to twelve and keeping still help us achieve?
Ans: Counting up to twelve and keeping still gives us time to introspect ourselves. In this way, we can recuperate our energy and restart our activities with fresh energy and zeal.

Q2. Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?
Ans: No, the poet does not advocate total inactivity and death. He only wants us to keep quiet for a few seconds and suspend all our activities for a few seconds. In this way we can introspect ourselves and restart our activities with fresh energy and zeal.

 Q3. What is the ‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?
Ans:  When people don’t introspect themselves they fail to understand themselves, then ‘sadness’ arises. The poet wants that people should overcome this sadness by introspecting themselves.

Q4. What symbol from Nature does the poet invoke to say that there can be life under apparent stillness?
Ans: In this poem, the poet uses the symbol of the earth to say that there can be life under apparent stillness. He says that the earth appears to be dead in the winter season. But when the spring season comes it becomes alive with all its new plants. It never takes rest.