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?

Agriculture

Jesus

Greek mythology

Irish independence
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?

6

10

20

14
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?

World War I

Christianity

Fairytales

First-wave feminism
5 Which line is an example of simile?

"I am a miner."

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"They weld to me like plums."

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

Synecdoche

Hyperbole

Metonymy

Simile
7 What does the word "exude" mean?

The exit of a cave

To leave out or exclude

To repeatedly question

To release or ooze
8 Who does the speaker address?

A coworker

Her child

A salesman

God
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Illness

Nature

Capitalism

Motherhood
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?

ABBA

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABAB

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

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The life of Queen Victoria

The material rewards of military victory
13 Which is most prominent in the line "Old cave of calcium"?

Internal rhyme

Apostrophe

Sibilance

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

Exhausted

Hopeful

Skeptical

Frightened
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

The preindustrial age

Intellectual enlightenment

The baby

Healing
16 To which object does the speaker compare the mine?

A womb

A palace

A pipe

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

tercets

quintains

couplets

quatrains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

formations that hang from a cave ceiling

formations that push out of a cave wall

formations that rise from a cave floor

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

Inequality

Luxury

Materialism

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

Teeth

Knives

Pillows

Hands
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"?

W

A

I

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

Unexpectedly lively

Empty and sad

Alien and bizarre

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

Personification

Simile

Anaphora

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"

Nick and the Candlestick Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Nick and the Candlestick is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Ask Your Own Question

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.

Read the Study Guide for Nick and the Candlestick…