Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A coal miner

A new mother

A Christian zealot

A soldier
2 What does the speaker allude to in the poem's final line?

Jesus

Irish independence

Greek mythology

Agriculture
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?

10

14

6

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?

"I am a miner."

"They weld to me like plums."

"I have hung our cave with roses"

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

Metonymy

Synecdoche

Simile

Hyperbole
7 What does the word "exude" mean?

To release or ooze

To leave out or exclude

To repeatedly question

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

God

A coworker

Her child

A salesman
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Nature

Illness

Motherhood

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?

ABBA

ABAB

ABCA

It has no regular rhyme scheme
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"?

Apostrophe

Alliteration

Sibilance

Internal rhyme
14 Which tone characterizes the poem's closing stanzas?

Hopeful

Skeptical

Exhausted

Frightened
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

Healing

The preindustrial age

Intellectual enlightenment

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

A womb

A pipe

A car

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

quatrains

tercets

couplets

quintains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

formations that push out of a cave wall

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that rise from a cave floor

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

Materialism

Domestic safety

Luxury

Inequality
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?

Teeth

Knives

Hands

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

Motherhood

Religion

Home and the domestic

Labor and work
22 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "waxy stalactites"?

S

I

W

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

Alien and bizarre

Spooky and suspenseful

Empty and sad

Unexpectedly lively
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?

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

"The blood blooms clean"

"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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