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

Poseidon

Odysseus

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

The Quaker sailors

Jonas Messias

The Leviathans

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

It reminds him of someone from his past

Its paint is chipped

It is too beautiful

It is expressionless
5 Which of the following characters does the speaker NOT address?

Poseidon

Jonas Messias

The Atlantic

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

Marble

Sea slime

Clay from deep in the earth

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

The wind

The statue of the Virgin Mary

The white whale

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

Ishmael from Moby-Dick

God

The whale

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

mutability

rainbow

cruelty

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

Sea-gulls

Eels

Whales

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

The speaker imagines himself tearing it down

It is shaken down from the mast by thunder

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

It appears in Walsingham
12 Which of the following is untrue about the speaker's perception of the statue of the Virgin Mary?

She and God share secret knowledge

She seems to be on the verge of tears

She appears too small for the altar

She sits near, not on, the altar
13 Which of the following is the Atlantic NOT "fouled" with?

Fallen angels

Blue sailors

Heavy oil spills

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

Tremble over Warren Winslow's death

Land on the mast of the Pequod

Wail for water

Circle over remains
15 What cries out in sympathy for the injured whale?

The rattling crabs

The Quakers' bones

The wind

The sea-gulls and terns
16 To what does the speaker compare the pilgrims walking to Walsingham?

The injured whale

Cows

The Quakers

The corpse from the beginning of the poem
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 loyalty

their bravery
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 prepare a coffin so he can be taken to shore and properly buried

They search him for valuables

They weigh him down and throw him back
19 What two works does the phrase "the mast-lashed master of Leviathans" reference?

The Bible and Paradise Lost

The Odyssey and the Bible

Moby-Dick and the Odyssey

Moby-Dick and the Bible
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 statue of the Virgin Mary

Time

The faces of drowned soldiers

The Quakers
22 Which two characters does the speaker describe as having heavy eyelids?

The Virgin Mary and the sea-gulls

The whale and the Virgin Mary

The sea-gulls and the terns

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

True

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

In his side

Out of God's sight

In the ash-pit of Jehoshaphat

In the ocean
25 What type of tree "splatters and splatters on the cenotaph"?

Maple

Pine

Oak

Evergreen

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