FLAMINGO

P.3 KEEPING QUIET

-Pablo Neruda

About the poet: Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) was born in Parral, Chile. His real
name was Neftali Ricardo Reyes Basoalto. His writing was simple and hence
beautiful. His images were easily understood. He wrote in green ink showing his
concern for the environment. He was a distinguished Poet Diplomat of Chilean
Government and won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.
Theme: In ‘Keeping Quiet’, Neruda talks about the necessity of quiet introspection
and creating a feeling of mutual understanding among human beings. The poet
visualizes a state of comfortable inertia (rest) where he wishes for pleasant idleness
and relaxation away from the rat race, destructive activities and futile wars. He
wishes for a profound silence and stillness that would alleviate (remove) the sadness
caused by lack of understanding and the threat of self destruction and build up a
sense of togetherness.
Summary:
According to the poet, keeping still and quiet will facilitate introspection and a
feeling of universal harmony. The poet requests the readers to keep quiet till he
counts up to twelve. The use of number twelve can be associated with twelve hours
of the clock or number of months in a year.
He requests us not to use any language and move our arms so much for a while as it
will become a hurdle in keeping quiet; rather we should go on with quiet
introspection.
When there is no rush; no movement and noise of engines, the threat of sudden
strangeness will tie all of us together into an exotic moment. It will be a blissful
moment, a near -divine experience when we all will be together.
In that exotic moment, even the fishermen (who represent the people who kill and
harm other creatures) will not harm the whales. This will bring about relief to them.
Salt –gatherers represent the poor strata of the society. They will also be able to
look after their injured bleeding hands and introspect what they have been gaining
in this materialistic world.
A good sense will also prevail on the war-mongers as they will understand the
futility of the same. Waging war against the green zone leads only to exploitation of
nature by humans. When environment is in jeopardy; human-existence is threatened
on the earth, the survivor of the war will face fatal consequences. By ‘wars with
gas, wars with fire’, the poet means new weapons of mass destruction like wars
with chemicals or wars with atomic or nuclear bombs. Such war-mongers are also
exhorted to put on clean clothes, i.e. instill a new approach towards life and walk
about with their brothers in the shade doing nothing.
The poet urges us not to mistake inactivity, advocated by him, for death. He
believes in life so he is against total inactivity. He only wants to interrupt the sad

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and cruel activities of the world. Inactivity is death and activity is the essence of
life. So whatever is emphasized upon by him is connected with life not death. He
clarifies that single-minded indulgence in the rat-race of self-centered goals leading
to materialism is unwarranted. Keeping quiet and discharging our duties peacefully
will evolve better understanding in us. The achievement of mental peace will lead
us to introspection and mutual understanding. The absence of these two traits
amounts to various conflicts in the world. With the development of mutual
understanding comes empathy and then our life becomes a pleasant experience.
The poet says like the earth the potentials may not be exhibited all the time. The
earth is calm and soothing. Things appear to be dormant but actually are constantly
active. Just as a seed, which apparently does not have life, comes back to life as it is
sown in the earth. He states that we must try to understand what life means in terms
of activities, i.e., which actions are worthy of being done and which are not. 
Finally, he declares his departure while persuading us to keep quiet and make an
individual effort to be silent and introspect.
________
Word-Meaning and Notes:
Pg. 95: introspection-examining of one’s own thoughts and actions; face of the earth-
various countries on the earth’s surface; exotic-unusual/extraordinary; cold sea-polar
sea; harm-hurt
Pg.96: green wars-wars against environment; gas-poisonous gas; fire –fire arms;
confused-misunderstood; truck with –association with; single minded-focussed on only
one thing;
Figures of Speech:
PUN: arms- (It is based on sound. It has got two references or meaning.) (1) The poet
is speaking not to move our ‘limbs’ (arms). (2) He is speaking of not to use weapons of
war (arms).
TRANSFERRED EPITHET: cold sea- The adjective ‘cold’ actually describes the
fishermen and not the sea. Men are cold-hearted or insensitive for damaging other
species for their selfish needs. (Epithet/Adjective ‘cold’ is transferred from its proper
object to another with which it has an association.)
METAPHOR: put on clean clothes-Just as we take of our soiled clothes and wear
new clothes, similarly we should take up a new approach towards life free from wars.
walk about with their brothers in the shade- Shade of a tree protects us from harsh
weather, similarly we will protect and shelter each other as brothers living in peace and
harmony.
when everything seems to be dead and later proves to be alive- Things appear to be
dormant but actually are constantly active. Just as a seed, which apparently does not
have life, comes back to life as it is sown in the earth.
PERSONIFICATION: Perhaps the Earth can teach us- Earth has been attributed
with the quality of a person that is of teaching.

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IRONY: victory with no survivors- In war somebody will become victorious but due
to bloodshed and slaughter, nobody will survive to enjoy it.
ANAPHORA: Let’s… - 2nd and 3rd line of Stanza 2 are beginning with the same word,
i.e., Let’s
REPETITION: wars with gas, wars with fire,- ‘wars with’ getting repeated
ALLITERATION: we will; sudden strangeness; his hurt hands; clean clothes;
etc.
SYMBOLS: count to twelve-a measure of time; Fishermen- the oppressor; whales-
the oppressed; man gathering salt-humanity; clean clothes-peace; brothers-mankind
__________

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