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?

Jesus

Agriculture

Greek mythology

Irish independence
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?

6

14

10

20
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?

Fairytales

Christianity

World War I

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

"Old cave of calcium"

"I am a miner."

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"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 leave out or exclude

To release or ooze

The exit of a cave

To repeatedly question
8 Who does the speaker address?

God

Her child

A coworker

A salesman
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Capitalism

Motherhood

Nature

Illness
10 What is a first communion?

A ceremony in the Catholic church

A historical period in the eighteenth century

An examination in British elementary schools

A concept in Marxist theory
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABCA

ABBA

It has no regular rhyme scheme

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

The material rewards of military victory

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

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

Apostrophe

Internal rhyme

Sibilance

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

Exhausted

Skeptical

Hopeful

Frightened
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

The preindustrial age

The baby

Intellectual enlightenment

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

A car

A womb

A palace

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

tercets

couplets

quatrains

quintains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that rise from a cave floor

formations that hang from a cave ceiling

formations that push out of a cave wall
19 What do roses and rugs most nearly symbolize?

Inequality

Materialism

Luxury

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

Pillows

Knives

Teeth

Hands
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?

Motherhood

Labor and work

Religion

Home and the domestic
22 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "waxy stalactites"?

I

W

A

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

Empty and sad

Spooky and suspenseful

Alien and bizarre

Unexpectedly lively
24 Which appears in the lines "And the fish, the fish—/Christ! they are panes of ice"

Anaphora

Metaphor

Simile

Personification
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?

"The blood blooms clean"

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

"You are the baby in the barn."

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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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