Keeping quiet means to remain silent. Silence can soothe our feelings and helps us to remove spiritual anxiety.

The poem "Keeping Quiet" has been composed by "Pablo Neruda". It is the pen name of "Neftali Richard Reyes Bosaolto". The Nobel prize winner poet has tried to make us clear about the necessity and importance of quiet introspection. He also stresses to create a feeling of understanding among people around us. The poem can be summarized in following ways : -

Silence brings exotic moment - Pablo Neruda intends to make us feel the state of stillness because it would bring exotic moment. So she says all to keep quiet until he will count up to twelve. He prohibits to utter a single word in any language on the earth and move arms even for a second. In this way he wants to make people experience the importance of keeping quiet to soothe feelings. It brings fascinating moment and sudden strangeness is enjoyed. To experience the fact he says that engines and machines must also be stopped that time.

Peaceful work break - The poet requests the fisherman to stop fishing and harming whales in the sea. He too, urges to stop their work. Even he says the salt collectors to take a work break and must look at hurt hands of the workers. Such interaction will result in peace and fascination.

End of war - Pablo Neruda suggests manufacturers of war weapon to stop production in order to attain peace. He adds and speaks of different kinds of war i.e. green environmental war, gas and firearms war etc. It is because victory has no meaning as there will be no survivor to taste it. People should work for putting on neat and tidy clothes. They should enjoy together under the shade of trees.

Total inactivity versus activity - The poet makes us clear that keeping quiet is temporary it should not be confused with total inactivity. Otherwise it will be considered death. Life is all about activity. Silence is only a tool to soothe feelings and remove sadness. It is used to threaten spiritual self with death to feel helpless and fight to overcome it.

Earth the best teacher - Earth is the best teacher. It is a symbol of life under apparent stillness. So Pablo Neruda makes us remember that the earth is always active. It teaches the fact that stillness does not mean total inactivity.

To sum up the poem the intends to prove the fact that keeping quiet is a tool to use for relaxation and soothing feelings. As the nature too, remains working inspite of apparent stillness.