Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

1 Who is the speaker of "Nick and the Candlestick"?
A new mother

A soldier

A Christian zealot

A coal miner
2 What does the speaker allude to in the poem's final line?
Jesus

Irish independence

Greek mythology

Agriculture
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
14

10

20

6
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
World War I

Fairytales

Christianity

First-wave feminism
5 Which line is an example of simile?
"I am a miner."

"Old cave of calcium"

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"They weld to me like plums."
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?
Simile

Hyperbole

Metonymy

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

To leave out or exclude

The exit of a cave

To release or ooze
8 Who does the speaker address?
God

A salesman

Her child

A coworker
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?
Motherhood

Illness

Nature

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

A historical period in the eighteenth century

A ceremony in the Catholic church

An examination in British elementary schools
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABBA

ABAB

ABCA
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"?
Internal rhyme

Alliteration

Apostrophe

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

Frightened

Exhausted

Hopeful
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?
Healing

Intellectual enlightenment

The baby

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

A pipe

A palace

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

couplets

quatrains

tercets
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?
underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that push out of a cave wall

formations that rise from a cave floor

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

Luxury

Materialism

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

Teeth

Hands

Knives
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?
Home and the domestic

Motherhood

Labor and work

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

I

W

S
23 Which best describes the mine in which the poem is partially set?
Spooky and suspenseful

Empty and sad

Unexpectedly lively

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

Anaphora

Simile

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

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

"The blood blooms clean"

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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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