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?

Agriculture

Jesus

Irish independence

Greek mythology
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?

6

10

20

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?

"Old cave of calcium"

"They weld to me like plums."

"I am a miner."

"I have hung our cave with roses"
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?

Hyperbole

Simile

Synecdoche

Metonymy
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 coworker

Her child

God

A salesman
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Motherhood

Capitalism

Nature

Illness
10 What is a first communion?

An examination in British elementary schools

A concept in Marxist theory

A ceremony in the Catholic church

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

ABBA

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABCA

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

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The material rewards of military victory

The life of Queen Victoria

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century
13 Which is most prominent in the line "Old cave of calcium"?

Sibilance

Apostrophe

Internal rhyme

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

Exhausted

Skeptical

Frightened

Hopeful
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

Intellectual enlightenment

The preindustrial age

Healing

The baby
16 To which object does the speaker compare the mine?

A palace

A womb

A pipe

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

quatrains

couplets

tercets

quintains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

formations that rise from a cave floor

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that push out of a cave wall

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

Domestic safety

Materialism

Inequality

Luxury
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?

Pillows

Hands

Teeth

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

Motherhood

Home and the domestic

Labor and work

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

I

A

W

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

Empty and sad

Unexpectedly lively

Spooky and suspenseful

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

Metaphor

Personification

Anaphora

Simile
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

"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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