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

The flag of a sunken ship

A seal

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

Achilles

Orpheus

Odysseus

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

The Leviathans

The pilgrims walking to Walsingham

The Quaker sailors

Jonas Messias
4 What make the speaker uneasy about the face of the Virgin Mary in Walsingham?

It is expressionless

Its paint is chipped

It reminds him of someone from his past

It is too beautiful
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

His own flesh

Marble

Sea slime
7 Which creature, object, or element has claws in this poem?

The wind

The "upward angel"

The statue of the Virgin Mary

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

God

The speaker

The whale

Ishmael from Moby-Dick
9 "The Lord survives the ____ of his will."

cruelty

rainbow

danger

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

Sea-gulls

Whales

Eels

Blue-fish
11 What happens to the red flag in the poem?

It appears in Walsingham

The speaker imagines himself tearing it down

It becomes the last surviving remnant of the ship it sank with

It is shaken down from the mast by thunder
12 Which of the following is untrue about the speaker's perception of the statue of the Virgin Mary?

She seems to be on the verge of tears

She and God share secret knowledge

She sits near, not on, the altar

She appears too small for the altar
13 Which of the following is the Atlantic NOT "fouled" with?

Heavy oil spills

Fallen angels

Ships

Blue sailors
14 Which of the following do the sea-gulls NOT do, according to the speaker?

Land on the mast of the Pequod

Circle over remains

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 injured whale

The corpse from the beginning of the poem

The Quakers

Cows
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 have difficulty disentangling him from the net

They search him for valuables

They weigh him down and throw him back

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?

Moby-Dick and the Bible

The Odyssey and the Bible

The Bible and Paradise Lost

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

The dying whale

Water

The speaker's cousin

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

Time

The Quakers

The statue of the Virgin Mary

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

The Virgin Mary and the sea-gulls

Poseidon and the "blue-lung'd combers"

The sea-gulls and the terns

The whale and the Virgin Mary
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

In the ash-pit of Jehoshaphat

In the ocean

Out of God's sight
25 What type of tree "splatters and splatters on the cenotaph"?

Evergreen

Oak

Pine

Maple

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