The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket Themes
Man and the Natural World
It's safe to say that, in this poem, man doesn't have the easiest relationship with the natural world. We're either doing a bad job of caring for it or we're being punished by it. According to the...
Death
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 hi...
Humility
In the epigraph of "The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket," Lowell reminds us that the Bible charged all humans with taking care of every animal on earth. This might seem like we are being made the kin...
Religion
We get plenty-o-God in the poem, and rarely is the Supreme Being very pleased with mankind. Though "The Quaker Graveyard in Nantucket" often features the Christian god of judgment, occasionally Low...