NCERT Textbook: Poem 3 - Keeping Quiet | English Class 12 PDF Download

 Page 1


Keeping Quiet
About the poet
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) is the pen name of Neftali Ricardo 
Reyes Basoalto who was born in the town of Parral in Chile. 
Neruda’s poems are full of easily understood images which make 
them no less beautiful. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 
the year 1971. In this poem Neruda talks about the necessity of 
quiet introspection and creating a feeling of mutual understanding 
among human beings.
Before you read
What does the title of the poem suggest to you? What do you think the poem 
is about?
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.
Fishermen in the cold sea 
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt 
would look at his hurt hands.
2
Poem-2.indd   90 12-02-2025   15:01:38
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Page 2


Keeping Quiet
About the poet
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) is the pen name of Neftali Ricardo 
Reyes Basoalto who was born in the town of Parral in Chile. 
Neruda’s poems are full of easily understood images which make 
them no less beautiful. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 
the year 1971. In this poem Neruda talks about the necessity of 
quiet introspection and creating a feeling of mutual understanding 
among human beings.
Before you read
What does the title of the poem suggest to you? What do you think the poem 
is about?
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.
Fishermen in the cold sea 
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt 
would look at his hurt hands.
2
Poem-2.indd   90 12-02-2025   15:01:38
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Keeping Quiet/91
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.
What I want should not be 
confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
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.
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 quiet and I will go.
 
to have no truck with :  to refuse to associate or deal with, to refuse to tolerate 
something
Think it out
1. What will counting upto twelve and keeping still help us achieve?
2. Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?
3. What is the ‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?
4. What symbol from Nature does the poet invoke to say that there
 can be life under apparent stillness?
Poem-2.indd   91 12/11/2024   11:22:43 AM
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Page 3


Keeping Quiet
About the poet
Pablo Neruda (1904-1973) is the pen name of Neftali Ricardo 
Reyes Basoalto who was born in the town of Parral in Chile. 
Neruda’s poems are full of easily understood images which make 
them no less beautiful. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 
the year 1971. In this poem Neruda talks about the necessity of 
quiet introspection and creating a feeling of mutual understanding 
among human beings.
Before you read
What does the title of the poem suggest to you? What do you think the poem 
is about?
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.
Fishermen in the cold sea 
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt 
would look at his hurt hands.
2
Poem-2.indd   90 12-02-2025   15:01:38
Reprint 2025-26
Keeping Quiet/91
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.
What I want should not be 
confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.
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.
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 quiet and I will go.
 
to have no truck with :  to refuse to associate or deal with, to refuse to tolerate 
something
Think it out
1. What will counting upto twelve and keeping still help us achieve?
2. Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?
3. What is the ‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?
4. What symbol from Nature does the poet invoke to say that there
 can be life under apparent stillness?
Poem-2.indd   91 12/11/2024   11:22:43 AM
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92/Flamingo
Try this out
 Choose a quiet corner and keep still physically and mentally for about five 
minutes. Do you feel any change in your state of mind?
Notice the differing line lengths of the stanzas and the shift in 
thought from stanza to stanza.
Poem-2.indd   92 12/11/2024   11:22:43 AM
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