What does the title of the poem suggest to you? What do you think the poem is about?
The title of the poem 'keeping quiet’ suggest that as man’s rush and hurry for various worldly materials have already caused enough chaos and trouble in this world and now is the time for introspection by remaining still and silent for some while which will provide us peace and harmony.
This poem is about the necessity of keeping quiet-calm-still to introspect and creating a mutual feeling and understanding between different human beings which will provide us a sense of belongingness and harmony in the society. And stillness doesn't mean total inactivity. Silence is taken to take a gap from the uproar world.
What will be counting up to twelve and keeping still help us achieve?
As there are only 12-hour signs on the clock to measure hours. therefore, the poet ask us to count till the clock measures those in a hope that we can remain calm and silent which will helps us in attaining a state of peace in which we will able to introspect and see and appreciate the benefits of harmonic- enticing- beautiful - exotic relationship that would exist between humans and nature.
Do you think the poet advocates total inactivity and death?
The poet doesn't want that we should confuse stillness with total inactivity. That would amount to death but he does advise that we introspect deeply and not indulge in an activity that is mindless and thus potentially destructive for human beings. We should not be always moving for a while we should take some rest. A long silence can soothe the feelings and helps in removing the sadness and turmoil.
What is the ‘sadness’ that the poet refers to in the poem?
Sadness is the condition or quality of being sad- unhappy- sorrowful- depress and low spirits which is formed out of Man's own thinking and action. A human is the most intelligent animal on this planet yet he fails to understand himself and his actions. His Rush and Hurry for the worldly glories has cause horrendous trouble and problems for not only himself but for nature too. Man is the author of all disasters.
What symbol from Nature does the poet invoke to say that there can be life under apparent stillness?
The poet doesn't want us to confuse stillness with total inactivity. The poet says that nature has lessons to teach us. There can be live under Apparent stillness. The poet invokes the earth as a living example of the statement and proves his point. Winter is the season when all appears to be dead and inactive but it is really not so everything gets silent and calm and in spring, which follows winter, everything comes alive again.
Choose a quiet corner and keep still physically and mentally for about five minutes. Do you feel any change in your state of mind?
Being quiet is state of making little or no noise i.e. carried out discreetly, secretly and with moderation in the light that it is the only way in which one can actually introspect. The same was felt when I too kept my physical, mental and emotional calm for 5 minutes. The sense of stillness inculcated the sense belongingness which helps us to see the world with the better eyes with a thinking that yes! We can do something, and we can do it better. All the frenzy and uncontrolled emotions - thoughts went missing in those 5 minutes. Any disrupt or negative vibes which made uncomfortable on the course of the whole day was nil after those 5 minutes. These 300 seconds of quite a state should be practiced by all of us once a day.
Notice the differing line lengths of the stanzas and the shift in thought from stanza to stanza.
The poet beautifully designed the length of lines and thoughts in every different stanza keeping the parent thought of keeping quiet same in each.
The first stanza, the poet tells us to be quiet and not say any word in any language.
The second stanza, how exotic will be to be in an environment where there is no rusty sound of engines and machines.
The third stanza, fishermen will not hurt the aquatic life and people gathering salt will take a moment to see their wounded hands.
Fourth stanza, army men, and other people indulge in the violence of any kind must stop and talk together with their family.
The fifth stanza, poet states silence should not be confused total inactivity and human shouldn't threaten himself with death.
The sixth stanza, Earth is itself prime example of Apparent stillness doesn't mean death.
This fascinating shift in thought takes every major aspect of an effective working environment and poet suggests all of it count till 12 and keep quiet.