The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket Quizzes

The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket Quiz

1 In the first stanza, what does the crew pull up from the ocean?

A whale

A drowned sailor

The flag of a sunken ship

A seal
2 Which of the following Greek mythological characters does not appear in the poem?

Odysseus

Poseidon

Achilles

Orpheus
3 Who says and repeats, "If God himself had not been on our side"?

Jonas Messias

The Leviathans

The Quaker sailors

The pilgrims walking to Walsingham
4 What make the speaker uneasy about the face of the Virgin Mary in Walsingham?

It is expressionless

Its paint is chipped

It is too beautiful

It reminds him of someone from his past
5 Which of the following characters does the speaker NOT address?

The Sailor

Poseidon

Jonas Messias

The Atlantic
6 In the last stanza, what does the speaker claim God made man from?

Clay from deep in the earth

Marble

Sea slime

His own flesh
7 Which creature, object, or element has claws in this poem?

The "upward angel"

The statue of the Virgin Mary

The white whale

The wind
8 Whom does the poem refer to as "IS"?

The whale

Ishmael from Moby-Dick

God

The speaker
9 "The Lord survives the ____ of his will."

cruelty

danger

mutability

rainbow
10 What do the "lubbers" try to catch?

Blue-fish

Sea-gulls

Whales

Eels
11 What happens to the red flag in the poem?

It appears in Walsingham

It is shaken down from the mast by thunder

The speaker imagines himself tearing it down

It becomes the last surviving remnant of the ship it sank with
12 Which of the following is untrue about the speaker's perception of the statue of the Virgin Mary?

She sits near, not on, the altar

She appears too small for the altar

She and God share secret knowledge

She seems to be on the verge of tears
13 Which of the following is the Atlantic NOT "fouled" with?

Heavy oil spills

Blue sailors

Ships

Fallen angels
14 Which of the following do the sea-gulls NOT do, according to the speaker?

Circle over remains

Land on the mast of the Pequod

Tremble over Warren Winslow's death

Wail for water
15 What cries out in sympathy for the injured whale?

The sea-gulls and terns

The Quakers' bones

The wind

The rattling crabs
16 To what does the speaker compare the pilgrims walking to Walsingham?

The Quakers

Cows

The corpse from the beginning of the poem

The injured whale
17 When the speaker says that the sailors of the Pequod were "Snatching at straws to sail," what is he trying to illustrate?

their determination

their foolishness

their bravery

their loyalty
18 What does the crew do with the body they pull up in the first stanza?

They weigh him down and throw him back

They search him for valuables

They have difficulty disentangling him from the net

They prepare a coffin so he can be taken to shore and properly buried
19 What two works does the phrase "the mast-lashed master of Leviathans" reference?

The Odyssey and the Bible

Moby-Dick and the Bible

The Bible and Paradise Lost

Moby-Dick and the Odyssey
20 What do the sea-gulls "wail" for?

The speaker's cousin

The Quakers

Water

The dying whale
21 What does the poem refer to as "open-eyed,/Wooden and childish"?

The Quakers

The statue of the Virgin Mary

Time

The faces of drowned soldiers
22 Which two characters does the speaker describe as having heavy eyelids?

The sea-gulls and the terns

The whale and the Virgin Mary

The Virgin Mary and the sea-gulls

Poseidon and the "blue-lung'd combers"
23 Generally, this poem criticizes those who attempt to dominate nature through whaling and other practices.

False

True
24 Where does the speaker beg Jonas Messias to hide "our steel"?

In his side

Out of God's sight

In the ocean

In the ash-pit of Jehoshaphat
25 What type of tree "splatters and splatters on the cenotaph"?

Pine

Oak

Evergreen

Maple

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