Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A new mother

A Christian zealot

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

Irish independence

Jesus

Agriculture
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
6

14

10

20
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
Christianity

First-wave feminism

Fairytales

World War I
5 Which line is an example of simile?
"Old cave of calcium"

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"I am a miner."

"They weld to me like plums."
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 salesman

Her child

God

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

Nature

Illness

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

A ceremony in the Catholic church

An examination in British elementary schools

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

ABBA

ABAB

It has no regular rhyme scheme
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
The material rewards of military victory

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The life of Queen Victoria

Nothing; it is a nonsense word
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

Frightened

Hopeful

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

Healing

The preindustrial age

Intellectual enlightenment
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?
tercets

quatrains

quintains

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

formations that rise from a cave floor

formations that push out of a cave wall

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

Luxury

Inequality

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

Teeth

Pillows

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

Religion

Labor and work

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

A

I

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

Alien and bizarre

Unexpectedly lively

Spooky and suspenseful
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?
"Atoms that cripple drip"

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"You are the baby in the barn."

"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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