Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

1 Who is the speaker of "Nick and the Candlestick"?

A new mother

A coal miner

A soldier

A Christian zealot
2 What does the speaker allude to in the poem's final line?

Greek mythology

Irish independence

Agriculture

Jesus
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?

6

20

14

10
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?

Fairytales

First-wave feminism

Christianity

World War I
5 Which line is an example of simile?

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"I am a miner."

"They weld to me like plums."

"Old cave of calcium"
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?

Synecdoche

Metonymy

Simile

Hyperbole
7 What does the word "exude" mean?

To repeatedly question

To release or ooze

The exit of a cave

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

A coworker

God

A salesman

Her child
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Motherhood

Illness

Nature

Capitalism
10 What is a first communion?

An examination in British elementary schools

A historical period in the eighteenth century

A concept in Marxist theory

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

ABAB

ABBA

ABCA

It has no regular rhyme scheme
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The life of Queen Victoria

The material rewards of military victory

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

Sibilance

Alliteration

Internal rhyme

Apostrophe
14 Which tone characterizes the poem's closing stanzas?

Exhausted

Hopeful

Frightened

Skeptical
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

Intellectual enlightenment

Healing

The preindustrial age

The baby
16 To which object does the speaker compare the mine?

A pipe

A womb

A car

A palace
17 What types of stanzas are in the poem?

couplets

quatrains

quintains

tercets
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

formations that push out of a cave wall

formations that rise from a cave floor

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that hang from a cave ceiling
19 What do roses and rugs most nearly symbolize?

Materialism

Inequality

Luxury

Domestic safety
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?

Pillows

Hands

Teeth

Knives
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?

Religion

Labor and work

Home and the domestic

Motherhood
22 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "waxy stalactites"?

S

A

W

I
23 Which best describes the mine in which the poem is partially set?

Alien and bizarre

Unexpectedly lively

Spooky and suspenseful

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

Metaphor

Simile

Personification

Anaphora
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?

"The blood blooms clean"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

"You are the baby in the barn."

""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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