Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A soldier

A new mother

A Christian zealot

A coal miner
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?

20

10

6

14
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?

World War I

First-wave feminism

Fairytales

Christianity
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

Hyperbole

Simile
7 What does the word "exude" mean?

To release or ooze

To repeatedly question

The exit of a cave

To leave out or exclude
8 Who does the speaker address?

Her child

A coworker

God

A salesman
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Nature

Motherhood

Capitalism

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?

ABAB

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABCA

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

The life of Queen Victoria

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The material rewards of military victory

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

Apostrophe

Sibilance

Alliteration

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

Frightened

Exhausted

Hopeful

Skeptical
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

The baby

Intellectual enlightenment

Healing

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

A pipe

A palace

A car

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

tercets

quatrains

couplets

quintains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

formations that hang from a cave ceiling

formations that push out of a cave wall

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that rise from a cave floor
19 What do roses and rugs most nearly symbolize?

Materialism

Domestic safety

Inequality

Luxury
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?

Teeth

Hands

Knives

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

Religion

Home and the domestic

Motherhood

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

I

W

S

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

Alien and bizarre

Empty and sad

Spooky and suspenseful

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

Personification

Anaphora

Simile

Metaphor
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"The blood blooms clean"

"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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