Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A soldier

A Christian zealot

A coal miner
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?
6

20

14

10
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
Fairytales

First-wave feminism

Christianity

World War I
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?
Synecdoche

Simile

Hyperbole

Metonymy
7 What does the word "exude" mean?
To repeatedly question

To release or ooze

To leave out or exclude

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

A salesman

A coworker

Her child
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?
Illness

Capitalism

Nature

Motherhood
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?
It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABBA

ABAB

ABCA
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
The life of Queen Victoria

The material rewards of military victory

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

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

Apostrophe

Alliteration

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

Exhausted

Frightened

Skeptical
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?
Healing

Intellectual enlightenment

The baby

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

A pipe

A womb

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

quatrains

quintains

couplets
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?
formations that push out of a cave wall

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that hang from a cave ceiling

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

Inequality

Domestic safety

Luxury
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?
Hands

Knives

Teeth

Pillows
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"?
S

A

I

W
23 Which best describes the mine in which the poem is partially set?
Spooky and suspenseful

Alien and bizarre

Unexpectedly lively

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?
""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"The blood blooms clean"

"You are the baby in the barn."

"Atoms that cripple drip"

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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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