Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

1 Who is the speaker of "Nick and the Candlestick"?
A Christian zealot

A soldier

A coal miner

A new mother
2 What does the speaker allude to in the poem's final line?
Jesus

Greek mythology

Irish independence

Agriculture
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
6

10

20

14
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
Christianity

Fairytales

First-wave feminism

World War I
5 Which line is an example of simile?
"I have hung our cave with roses"

"They weld to me like plums."

"Old cave of calcium"

"I am a miner."
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?
Synecdoche

Metonymy

Hyperbole

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

To release or ooze

The exit of a cave

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

A salesman

God

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

Nature

Illness

Motherhood
10 What is a first communion?
A historical period in the eighteenth century

An examination in British elementary schools

A ceremony in the Catholic church

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

ABCA

ABBA

It has no regular rhyme scheme
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The material rewards of military victory

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

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

Alliteration

Apostrophe

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

Frightened

Hopeful

Exhausted
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?
Healing

The baby

The preindustrial age

Intellectual enlightenment
16 To which object does the speaker compare the mine?
A pipe

A womb

A car

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

quintains

tercets

couplets
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?
formations that rise from a cave floor

formations that push out of a cave wall

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

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

Domestic safety

Luxury

Materialism
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?
Knives

Hands

Pillows

Teeth
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?
Religion

Motherhood

Labor and work

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

S

A

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

Unexpectedly lively

Empty and sad

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

Personification

Simile

Anaphora
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?
""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"You are the baby in the barn."

"Atoms that cripple drip"

"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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