ENGLISH/ CLASS 12/ FLAMINGO/ POEM

KEEPING QUIET - PABLO NERUDA

MAIN POINTS:

- Talks about the quality of silence which has been lost

- What life can be in a brief moment of a silent pause
- To keep quiet is stay still
- To understand that one is a thread, woven within the exquisite fabric of the cosmic
order.

FORM : Free Verse ; no rhyme scheme

THEME:

The need for silence

Peace, pacifism (non-violence)

Inclusivity, brotherhood

Fraternity (community), Justice

Ecological Conservation

MESSAGE :

 to stop all the activities, keeping quiet of mind, not doing anything else.
 we must cease all our activities and be quiet for a moment and come under one
umbrella of silence breaking the differences we possess.
 a call to break the barriers of enmity, every creed, caste, religion and country and get
united to introspect ourselves for a better world.
 To create the state of equilibrium ( balance) which is without any movement, without
any activity, without any rush and without any sound.
 We shall get a chance to introspect within ourselves whether we are right or wrong, true
or false.
 Demands to retrospect i.e. to look back at our past events and thus evaluate for good.
 We only get an opportunity to introspect or retrospect when we find ourselves in the
state of being quiet.
 The poet wishes to teach us by giving the example of earth which at one season may
look as if dead but comes back with life in another season. Likewise our life will also bear
certain meaning when we walk on the right path i.e. introspecting in silence.
 POETIC DEVICES:
 Alliteration : we were
sudden strangeness
clean clothes
we would
his hurt hands
we will
wars with

 Metaphor : put on clean clothes

in the shade

 Repetition: without rush, without engines

wars

 Antithesis: count to twelve and we will all keep still

 Personification: perhaps the Earth can teach us; the Earth is an instructor to us.

 Enjambment: perhaps a huge silence…….. of threatening ourselves with death.

 Assonance: use of vowel sound ‘o’ and ‘e’ ( Now we will count to twelve, not
move ours arms so much)
use of vowel sound ‘ o’ ( victory with no survivors, would put on
clean clothes and walk about with their brothers)

 Anaphora: Two consecutive lines starting with the word ‘ Let’s’