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?

Orpheus

Odysseus

Poseidon

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

Jonas Messias

The pilgrims walking to Walsingham

The Leviathans

The Quaker sailors
4 What make the speaker uneasy about the face of the Virgin Mary in Walsingham?

It is expressionless

It is too beautiful

It reminds him of someone from his past

Its paint is chipped
5 Which of the following characters does the speaker NOT address?

Jonas Messias

Poseidon

The Atlantic

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

Clay from deep in the earth

Sea slime

Marble

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

The statue of the Virgin Mary

The "upward angel"

The white whale

The wind
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."

mutability

cruelty

rainbow

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

Sea-gulls

Eels

Blue-fish

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

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

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

She appears too small for the altar

She seems to be on the verge of tears

She sits near, not on, the altar

She and God share secret knowledge
13 Which of the following is the Atlantic NOT "fouled" with?

Blue sailors

Heavy oil spills

Fallen angels

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

Land on the mast of the Pequod

Tremble over Warren Winslow's death

Circle over remains

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

The Quakers' bones

The sea-gulls and terns

The wind

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

Cows

The Quakers

The injured whale

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 loyalty

their bravery

their determination

their foolishness
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 weigh him down and throw him back

They search him for valuables
19 What two works does the phrase "the mast-lashed master of Leviathans" reference?

The Odyssey and the Bible

The Bible and Paradise Lost

Moby-Dick and the Bible

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

The Quakers

Water

The speaker's cousin

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

Time

The Quakers

The faces of drowned soldiers

The statue of the Virgin Mary
22 Which two characters does the speaker describe as having heavy eyelids?

Poseidon and the "blue-lung'd combers"

The sea-gulls and the terns

The whale and the Virgin Mary

The Virgin Mary and the sea-gulls
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"?

Out of God's sight

In the ocean

In his side

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

Maple

Oak

Evergreen

Pine

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