Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A coal miner

A Christian zealot

A soldier

A new mother
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

20

10

14
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?

First-wave feminism

World War I

Fairytales

Christianity
5 Which line is an example of simile?

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"Old cave of calcium"

"They weld to me like plums."

"I am a miner."
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?

Simile

Synecdoche

Hyperbole

Metonymy
7 What does the word "exude" mean?

To repeatedly question

To release or ooze

To leave out or exclude

The exit of a cave
8 Who does the speaker address?

A coworker

Her child

A salesman

God
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Nature

Motherhood

Capitalism

Illness
10 What is a first communion?

A concept in Marxist theory

An examination in British elementary schools

A ceremony in the Catholic church

A historical period in the eighteenth century
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABCA

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABBA

ABAB
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The material rewards of military victory

The life of Queen Victoria

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century
13 Which is most prominent in the line "Old cave of calcium"?

Internal rhyme

Alliteration

Sibilance

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

Skeptical

Exhausted

Hopeful

Frightened
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

Healing

The preindustrial age

Intellectual enlightenment

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

A womb

A palace

A car

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

couplets

quintains

tercets

quatrains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

formations that hang from a cave ceiling

formations that rise from a cave floor

formations that push out of a cave wall

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves
19 What do roses and rugs most nearly symbolize?

Inequality

Luxury

Domestic safety

Materialism
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?

Teeth

Hands

Knives

Pillows
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"?

I

S

W

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

Spooky and suspenseful

Alien and bizarre

Unexpectedly lively

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

Anaphora

Simile

Personification

Metaphor
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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