Keeping Quiet - Extra Questions and Answers (Class 12)
Keeping Quiet Extra Questions and Answers Important Questions Class 12 English Flamingo
Here we are providing Keeping Quiet Extra Questions and Answers Important Questions Class 12 English Flamingo, Extra Questions for Class 12 English was designed by subject expert teachers.
Keeping Quiet Extra Questions and Answers Short Answer Type
Question 1. What will counting up to twelve and keeping still help us achieve?
Answer: Counting upto 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.
Question 2. Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?
Answer: 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.
Question 3. What is the ‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?
Answer: 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.
Question 4. What symbol from Nature does the poet invoke to say that there can be life under apparent stillness?
Answer: 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.
Question 5. How would keeping quiet affect the life in and around the sea?
Answer: It will affect the life in and around the sea in two ways. The fishermen will stop fishing for some time. It will help the number of the fish to recuperate. The man gathering salt will get some time to see his hurt hands get healed.
Question 6. ‘Life is what at is about; How is keeping quiet related to life?
Answer: Keeping quiet is related to life not death. The poet says that by keeping quiet we get some time to introspect ourselves. Keeping quiet helps us to recuperate our energy. In this way we can start our activities with fresh zeal and energy.
Question 7. Why does one feel ‘a sudden strangeness’ on counting to twelve and keeping quiet?
Answer: When we keep quiet for some time and suspend all our activities for some time, we feel a sort of strangeness. The reason is that we are always surrounded by the noise of machines, etc. When there is no sound, we feel a sort of strangeness.
Question 8. How will ‘keeping quiet’ protect our environment?
Answer: Keeping quiet helps us to stop wars. In this way it helps to prevent destruction of environment due to wars. Also, it prevents deforestation. In this way, we can say that keeping quiet is the only way to prevent our environment from all types of pollution.
Question 9. What does the poet want us to tell?
Answer: The poet wants us to tell that by keeping quiet and remaining still for few moments, we will be able to do our work in a more effective way. We can analyse our past actions and not repeat our past mistakes.
Question 10. What does the poet mean by saying ‘victory with no survivors’?
Answer: According to the poet the wars cause a lot of destruction. A lot of people die from both the sides. Therefore, no one can claim that their side has won, since the so called victor also has to face a lot of casualties.
Question 11. What are the different types of wars mentioned in the poem?
Or
What is Neruda’s attitude towards these wars?
Answer: The poet says that there are green wars. He means to say that the people who destroy forests also wage a war against their own coming generations. There are wars with fire, chemical weapons and poisonous gases. The wars bring so much destruction that no side could be called victorious. The poet wants that all these wars should be stopped. These wars bring nothing but destruction.
Question 12. How does the earth teach us that there is activity even in apparent stillness?
Answer: We think that earth is dead as it remains still. But many changes are taking place under the surface of the earth. A seed that seems dead germinates under the earth and a new life springs from it.
Keeping Quiet Extra Questions and Answers Stanza For Comprehension
Stanza 1
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.
Questions
(a) What is the significance of the number ‘twelve’ ?
(b) Which two activities does the poet want us to stop ?
(c) What does the poet mean by ‘let’s not speak in any language’ ?
(d) Describe the pun on the word ‘arms’.
Answers
(a) There are twelve hours on the face of the clock and also there are twelve months in a year. The poet also refers to the number twelve. He wants us to suspend our activities for twelve seconds.
(b) The poet wants us to stop talking and moving our arms.
(c) The poet wants us to give a universal message. He wants that all the people of the world irrespective of their nationality should suspend their activities for a few seconds. Not to use any organ to communicate.
(d) The poet has used the word arms for two purposes. He wants us to keep still for a few seconds and not move our arms. The second meaning of the word arms is weapons. The poet wants us to stop the use of arms against anyone.
Stanza 2
It would be an eicotic moment
without rush, without engines,
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness
Fishermen in the cold sea
would not harm whales.
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.
Questions
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) Which moment has been referred to here and how it will be significant ?
(c) How would we feel during that moment ?
(d) What does the poet want from the fishermen ?
Answers
(a) The name of the poem is ‘Keeping Quiet’ and the name of the poet is Pablo Neruda.
(b) The moment of quiet introspection has been referred here. It is significant in the sense that it brings all of us together and we have a feeling of oneness.
(c) We would feel all together and have a feeling of sudden strangeness.
(d) The poet wants that the fishermen should not kill whales for sometime.
Stanza 3
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) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) What does the poet mean by green wars ?
(c) What types of wars does the poet mention ?
(d) What does the poet want from the lovers of the war ?
Answers
(a) The name of the poem is ‘Keeping Quiet’ and the poet is Pablo Neruda.
(b) It means the war against the environment or deforestation.
(c) The poet mentions green wars, wars with gas and wars with fire.
(d) He wants them to wear clean clothes and walk leisurely with their brothers.
Stanza 4
What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
Questions
(a) Name the poem and the poet.
(b) What should not be confused with total inactivity ?
(c) What does the poet mean by … I want no truck with death ?
(d) What is the gist of this stanza ?
Answers
(a) The name of the poem is ‘Keeping Quiet’ and the name of the poet is Pablo Neruda.
(b) Keeping quiet and remaining still should not be confused with total inactivity.
(c) The poet wants to say that stillness and quietness is not death. He wants to restart his activities again after introspection of a few seconds.
(d) In this stanza the poet says that quietness is not death. Rather it helps us to restart our activities in a fresh way.
Stanza 5
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.
Questions
(a) Why does the poet use the expression ‘single-minded’ ?
(b) What does the poet want us to do for once ?
(c) What effect would this have on us ?
(d) What does the poet mean by ‘sadness’ here ?
Answers
(a) The poet uses the expression ‘single-minded’ to show that human beings are always busy with their own lives and do not think about anything else.
(b) The poet wants us to do nothing for once and keep quiet.
(c) It would help us understand ourselves and stop threatening ourselves with death.
(d) The sadness refers to our failure to understand ourselves and the resulting sense of emptiness.
Stanza 6
Perhaps the Earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.
Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep still.
Questions
(a) What can the Earth teach us ?
(b) What is the message of the poem ?
(c) What does the poet mean by ‘everything seems dead’ ?
(d) What is the significance of ‘count up to twelve’ ?
Answers
(a) The Earth can teach us how there is life even in apparent stillness.
(b) The message of the poem is that we should stop for a moment, introspect, and live in harmony with others and nature.
(c) It means that though things may appear lifeless, there is hidden activity and life beneath the surface.
(d) It is a call for a brief pause so that people can remain quiet and reflect.