The sea is one big death trap, full of sailors who never made it back to land. Lowell begins "The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket" with the image of a drowned sailor clinging to a net and compares him to the many drowned sailors of years past, all of whom are "bloodless" and sunk to the bottom of the sea. Man's life is but a plaything to the ocean and to the gods who control it. As if that weren't enough, there are some pretty descriptive lines detailing the butchering of a whale that might leave you wishing you hadn't had seafood for dinner. As inevitable as it is, dying ain't pretty, the poem says, and should be avoided at all costs.
Questions About Death
- Why is the death of the sailor such an important event in the poem? Why does Lowell describe his corpse the way he does?
- Does the whale die? By whose hand: man, or a higher power? How do you know?
- Did the whale kill the Quaker sailors? If not, who is responsible for their deaths? What parts of the poem give you your answer?
Chew on This
Killing the whale is compared to destroying a sanctuary. Lowell is comparing taking the life of any creature, who we were charged to protect, with doing something sacrilegious. In other words, it's serious bad news.
In the poem, death via the sea is the ultimate weapon of the gods. The humans don't stand a chance.