A caution against misunderstanding

Sensing that his plea could be taken the wrong way, the poet pauses to explain himself. He does not want a complete, deathlike standstill, and he is not celebrating idleness. Life is precisely what he values, and he has no wish to associate his idea with death. The silence he calls for is meant to serve and protect life, not to cancel it. This clarification keeps the poem from being read as a plea for mer …