One Important Question from "Keeping Things Whole" and Summary

Mark Strand

English | Questions
Keeping Things Whole
Mark Strand
Class : 11 | The Magic of Words

Summary

This poem has been composed by Mark Strand. In this poem, the poet has shown his feelings for wholeness against the usual fragmentation that goes on in everyday life. According to the poem, the poet is in the field but he cannot feel his presence. When he walks, he parts the air. He is losing himself everywhere. He only makes the air whole not partial. Usual fragmentation is temporary in the world. The poet thinks himself as the absence of field. While he walks, he realizes that he divides the air and the air moves into the space in his body. He says that people walk from one place to another place for different purposes. But they mix themselves everywhere. The poet concludes this poem after giving his ideas. He says that the earth is moving and all planets are moving. But they include for doing all activity to make something whole. Therefore, everything is moving and it moves to keep things whole. So he is against the usual fragmentation that goes in life. 

Important Questions 

1. Interpret the poem "Keeping Things Whole." Or, Write the central idea of the poem. 

Ans: We human beings move from one place to another place to fulfill our purpose. We all have our own purposes for moving. When we move from one place to another place, we divide the air but the air moves in to fulfill the place from where we have gone through. Similarly we become absent in the place which we leave. According to the poet this happiness all the time in our life, we try to do wholeness/completeness but everything remains incomplete. When we solve one problem, other problems move in like air moves in. In the same way we find something missing in the first place when we go to another place. 

Questions for Practice 

1) Give your interpretation of the poem "Keeping Things Whole". 

2) How does the poet view himself in the field, in the air and in the backdrop? 

3) How does the poet view himself in the field and in the air? 

4) Summarize the poem "Keeping Things Whole" in a paragraph.