Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

1 Who is the speaker of "Nick and the Candlestick"?
A Christian zealot

A new mother

A coal miner

A soldier
2 What does the speaker allude to in the poem's final line?
Agriculture

Greek mythology

Irish independence

Jesus
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
6

14

20

10
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
Fairytales

First-wave feminism

World War I

Christianity
5 Which line is an example of simile?
"Old cave of calcium"

"I am a miner."

"They weld to me like plums."

"I have hung our cave with roses"
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?
Metonymy

Synecdoche

Hyperbole

Simile
7 What does the word "exude" mean?
To repeatedly question

The exit of a cave

To release or ooze

To leave out or exclude
8 Who does the speaker address?
Her child

A coworker

A salesman

God
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?
Capitalism

Illness

Motherhood

Nature
10 What is a first communion?
A concept in Marxist theory

A historical period in the eighteenth century

An examination in British elementary schools

A ceremony in the Catholic church
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABCA

ABAB

ABBA

It has no regular rhyme scheme
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
The life of Queen Victoria

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The material rewards of military victory

Nothing; it is a nonsense word
13 Which is most prominent in the line "Old cave of calcium"?
Internal rhyme

Apostrophe

Alliteration

Sibilance
14 Which tone characterizes the poem's closing stanzas?
Exhausted

Skeptical

Frightened

Hopeful
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?
The baby

Intellectual enlightenment

Healing

The preindustrial age
16 To which object does the speaker compare the mine?
A womb

A car

A palace

A pipe
17 What types of stanzas are in the poem?
quintains

quatrains

couplets

tercets
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?
formations that hang from a cave ceiling

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that push out of a cave wall

formations that rise from a cave floor
19 What do roses and rugs most nearly symbolize?
Domestic safety

Materialism

Inequality

Luxury
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?
Hands

Knives

Pillows

Teeth
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?
Religion

Labor and work

Motherhood

Home and the domestic
22 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "waxy stalactites"?
A

I

S

W
23 Which best describes the mine in which the poem is partially set?
Empty and sad

Spooky and suspenseful

Unexpectedly lively

Alien and bizarre
24 Which appears in the lines "And the fish, the fish—/Christ! they are panes of ice"
Anaphora

Metaphor

Personification

Simile
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?
"You are the baby in the barn."

"The blood blooms clean"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

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Study Guide for Nick and the Candlestick

Nick and the Candlestick study guide contains a biography of Sylvia Plath, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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