Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A soldier

A new mother

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

Agriculture

Greek mythology

Irish independence
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
10

20

6

14
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
Fairytales

First-wave feminism

World War I

Christianity
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?
Simile

Synecdoche

Metonymy

Hyperbole
7 What does the word "exude" mean?
To leave out or exclude

To release or ooze

To repeatedly question

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

A coworker

God

Her child
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?
It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABBA

ABCA

ABAB
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
The material rewards of military victory

The life of Queen Victoria

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

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

Sibilance

Internal rhyme

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

Exhausted

Frightened

Hopeful
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?
Intellectual enlightenment

The baby

Healing

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

A pipe

A womb

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

tercets

quatrains

couplets
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?
formations that rise from a cave floor

formations that hang from a cave ceiling

formations that push out of a cave wall

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

Materialism

Luxury

Inequality
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?
Pillows

Hands

Knives

Teeth
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?
Religion

Home and the domestic

Labor and work

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

I

S

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

Unexpectedly lively

Alien and bizarre

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

Metaphor

Anaphora

Simile
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?
"The blood blooms clean"

"You are the baby in the barn."

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

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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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