Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A coal miner

A Christian zealot

A new mother
2 What does the speaker allude to in the poem's final line?
Irish independence

Greek mythology

Jesus

Agriculture
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
6

14

10

20
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
World War I

Christianity

First-wave feminism

Fairytales
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?
Hyperbole

Metonymy

Synecdoche

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

To repeatedly question

The exit of a cave

To release or ooze
8 Who does the speaker address?
A salesman

Her child

A coworker

God
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?
Motherhood

Nature

Illness

Capitalism
10 What is a first communion?
An examination in British elementary schools

A ceremony in the Catholic church

A historical period in the eighteenth century

A concept in Marxist theory
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABAB

ABCA

ABBA
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The material rewards of military victory

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The life of Queen Victoria
13 Which is most prominent in the line "Old cave of calcium"?
Alliteration

Internal rhyme

Apostrophe

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

Exhausted

Frightened

Hopeful
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?
The preindustrial age

Healing

The baby

Intellectual enlightenment
16 To which object does the speaker compare the mine?
A womb

A car

A palace

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

tercets

couplets

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

formations that push out of a cave wall

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

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

Materialism

Inequality

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

Hands

Teeth

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

Labor and work

Religion

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

S

A

I
23 Which best describes the mine in which the poem is partially set?
Alien and bizarre

Unexpectedly lively

Spooky and suspenseful

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

Metaphor

Personification

Anaphora
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"

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…