JAIRAM PUBLIC SCHOOL, SALEM-8

(CBSE - Senior Secondary)

Affiliated to CBSE, New Delhi Affin No.1930411

Ph : 97900-55555

English ALS Portfolio

SUB CODE : 301

2022-2023

This is to certify that S. FATHIMA RANI MARY of class XII-B2 has completed her
project file under my supervision.

She has taken proper care and shown utmost sincerity in completion of this
project. I certify that her project is up to my expectation and as per guidelines
issued by CBSE.

Internal Examiner External examiner Principal Signature

Date:
This is to certify that Ms S. FATHIMA RANI MARY of Class XII-B2
of Jairam Public School, Salem-8 has completed her project file
under my guidance. She has taken proper care and shown
utmost sincerity in completing this project.
I certify that her project this project is up to my expectations
and as per the guidelines issued by CBSE.

Mr. R. Gokul
(PGT ENGLISH/Head of the Department)

(Signature)
 Index
S.no Topics Pg.no
1. Cover Page
2. Acknowledgement
3. Certificate of Guide
4. Certificate of Student
5. Action Plan
6. Objectives of ALS
7. Silence leads to Success
8. Importance of Stillness
9. Prologue of the Poem
10. Title Justification
11. About the Poet
12. Theme of the Poem
13. Message of the Poem
14. Literary Devices of the Poem
15. Overall view of the Poem
16. Bibliography
17. Report

1
 silence leads to success

Silence is a precious gift. In that space between our

words, it‟s where we find ourselves. When the mind
is quiet, when there are no thoughts and no words to
be said, we can hear our own heart talking to us. We
can hear our own soul and our own intuition. When
we allow ourselves to be quiet, to breathe in and
breathe out, without the need to force ourselves into
saying another word or think another thought, that‟s
when we can hear our inner voice, our heart, and
intuition. That‟s when we can experience our own
Divinity, our own beauty, and perfection.

2
 Importance of stillness

Less stress:
Being in stillness reduces responses in the parasympathetic system,
which is responsible for fight or flight and increases responses in the
sympathetic system, responsible for rest and relaxation. In other
words, it calms your mind allowing you to feel more at peace and
less stressed out.

Creativity increases:
Being in stillness pulls you out of your left brain and allows your
right brain to be more activated. Your right brain is the creative
center of the brain. Increased activity in this area of the brain offers
a change in perspective and can often lead to unexpected outcomes.

Able to hear your own opinion:

There is a large group of voices out there trying to tell you how you
should be, what you should do and how you should look. When you
practice stillness, you learn to silence those voices and can more
easily tap into your thoughts, opinions to know what is true for you.

Increases listening skills:

As you learn to listen to be more present, a natural by-product is
you get better at listening to others. You stop waiting to talk and
instead learn to actually hear what others are saying and you
respond more effectively and empathetically.

3
Prologue of the poem :

KEEPING QUIET
“Keeping Quiet” is a peace poem written by the
Chilean poet Pablo Neruda. He discusses the need of
maintaining peace and silence. He tells the
importance of keeping quiet for a while. He stresses
upon being quiet is harmless to the human beings,
animals and environment. He suggests that in order
to maintain peace and harmony around the world,
stillness is necessary.

Silence is a

source of

great strength

4
 TITLE JUSTIFICATION
This title „Keeping Quiet‟ is apt for this poem as it
expresses what can happen as a result of keeping
quiet. It stresses the importance of introspection,
solitude and of stopping our work or any activity for
some time. The title throws light on the power of
quietness in resolving our personal issues and there
is life in nature, under apparent stillness. It is in fact,
one of the essential things to live a peaceful life.
Only by “keeping quiet” and introspecting on our
actions, we can hope to build a better world. The
title of the poem suggests that we must keep quiet
for a moment. There will be silence and all will set
together and realize the value of collectiveness.
Here, we should not confuse „stillness‟ with „total
inactivity‟. Life should go on as it is doing about.
Even the nature remains busy in doing some activity.
The poem stresses the significance of mutual
understanding and necessity for introspection.

5
 ABOUT THE POET
Pablo Neruda, original name Neftalí Ricardo Reyes Basoalto,
(born July 12, 1904, Parral, Chile—died September 23,
1973, Santiago), Chilean poet, diplomat, and politician who
was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971. He was
the most important Latin American poet of the 20th century.
Neruda was a precocious boy who began to write poetry at
age 10. His father tried to discourage him from writing and
never cared for his poems Neruda first published his poems
in the local newspapers and later in magazines published in
the Chilean capital, Santiago. He wrote the poems in a
variety of styles, historical epics, overtly political
manifestos, a prose autobiography, and passionate love
poems such as the ones in his collection Twenty Love Poems
and a Song of Despair (1924).

6
 Theme of the poem
The main theme of the poem Keeping Quiet is
Peace, Fraternity and Unity. The poet, Pablo Neruda,
urges mankind to cease all activity for a little while.
During these few moments of silence and inactivity,
all human beings would be one, united, and in
harmony with each other and nature. This
togetherness and oneness is most desirable for the
survival of the earth and of human beings.
Throughout the poem, the poet talks about
destruction caused by greed and selfishness. We are
destroying our environment, killing our brothers and
hurting ourselves and while doing all this, we never
introspect ourselves and our actions.
According to the poet, if we stop doing everything
(like wars, deforestation , industrialization , killing
of animals, hurting ourselves) and instead remain
still and keep silence, we will be able to feel a
strange happiness. We will be able to introspect our
inner self which asks us to spread love and unity
instead of hate and greed.

7
 MESSAGE OF THE POEM
The message of the poem Keeping Quiet is
fraternity, brotherhood, peace and love. Throughout
the poem, the poet is telling us to keep quiet. This
will help us to understand how we are destroying our
environment by deforestation, pollution and deadly
wars. Not just environment, we are killing animals,
hurting ourselves and killing each other for selfish
reasons. However, when we will be silent, we will
be able to introspect ourselves. As silence is
understood universally, there will be no language
barrier and thus we all will be one. There will be no
hate or greed in the world and thus it will be a better
place to live.

8
 Literary devices USED
in the poem

1. Alliteration: It is the repetition of consonant

sounds at the beginning of words.
e.g. “we will count”, “sudden strangeness”,
“stop for one second”, “his hurt hands”,
“clean clothes”.
2. Repetition: It is the repetition of phrases in the
poem for poetic effect.
e.g. “without rush, without engines“.
3. Symbolism: The poet uses various symbols in
the poem.
e.g. “Brothers” symbolise mankind, “green
wars” refer to deforestation, “wars with gas”
refers to pollution, “clean clothes” symbolise
change of perspective, “shade” symbolises
protection etc.

9
4. Antithesis: It is just a position of opposing or
contrasting ideas.
e.g. “count to twelve and we will all keep still”.
Here counting and keeping still are contrasting
activities and are put together.
5. Personification: it is the attribution of human
characteristics to non-human things and animals.
e.g. “Earth can teach us as when everything“.
6. Metaphor: It is used to make a comparison
between two things that aren‟t alike but do have
something in common.
e.g. “shade” refers to protection.
7. Enjambment: It is the continuation of a
sentence to the next line/stanza. (In the poem,
many sentences continue to multiple lines.)
e.g. “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.” etc.

10
 overall view of the poem
In this poem, the poet has emphasised the need to
introspect and bring in the spirit of brotherhood
among the people of the world. He wants people to
stop talking and all movements symbolising
restlessness till he counts twelve. These moments of
silence would be strange and exotic because in our
life, we are working towards achieving selfish goals,
regardless of the others‟ requirements and emotions.
Hence, this sudden silence would give us an
opportunity to introspect. Since we would not speak
for a while, barriers between communities would
break and a sense of brotherhood would prevail.
Man would get an opportunity to realise how he is
destroying nature and how he is harming himself.
Futile wars against man and nature would be
arrested and a new feeling of unity would be
experienced. The poet does not want his desire for
inactivity to be misunderstood as a state of
uselessness or in action. He wants man to learn a
lesson from the earth. The earth appears to be
inactive, yet it is selflessly productive. Man too
could be productive and progressive without any
aggression, selfishness and the urge for destruction.
11
 BIBILIOGRAPHY
WWW.WIKIPEDIA.COM

WWW.SUCCESSCDS.NET

WWW.ENGLISHNOTES.COM

WWW.POETRYFOUNDATION.ORG

12
REPORT OF THE PROJECT

13
14
15