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Q.What does the poet hope to achieve by keeping still? (extract-based reference-to-context question)

CBSECBSE Class XII Board 2020Subjective· 1mImportance★★★★★
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The poet hopes that by keeping still, he can achieve a moment of shared, conscious stillness that breaks the cycle of frantic activity and allows humanity to pause, reflect, and connect with one another.

The question comes from Pablo Neruda’s poem Keeping Quiet, which is part of your CBSE English syllabus. The poet is not asking for total silence or inaction in a lazy sense — he is proposing a deliberate, collective pause. The key line in the extract is usually: “Now we will count to twelve and we will all keep still.” Neruda chooses the number twelve deliberately — it echoes the hours on a clock or the months of a year, suggesting a complete cycle. He wants us to stop, just for a moment, and step away from the rush of modern life.

What does he hope to achieve? First, he wants to interrupt the mindless momentum that leads to conflict and destruction. Look at the lines that follow in the poem: he talks about fishermen not harming whales, about salt-gatherers looking at their hurt hands. These are images of people so caught up in their work — in survival — that they have no time to think about the consequences of their actions. By keeping still, even for a few seconds, the poet hopes we will become aware of what we are doing to ourselves, to others, and to the planet.

Second, Neruda hopes for a moment of universal brotherhood. When everyone stops together, there is no language barrier, no national boundary — just a shared human experience. He says, “it would be an exotic moment without rush, without engines.” That stillness is not empty; it is full of potential. It allows us to listen to our own heartbeat and, by extension, to feel connected to every other human being doing the same thing at that same moment.

Note

The poet is careful to clarify that he does not mean total inactivity or death. He says, “I do not want to talk about death.” He is talking about a life-affirming pause — like the stillness of a tree before it bursts into new leaves. …

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