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 coal miner

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

Jesus

Agriculture

Irish independence

Greek mythology
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?

20

14

6

10
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?

Fairytales

Christianity

First-wave feminism

World War I
5 Which line is an example of simile?

"I am a miner."

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"Old cave of calcium"

"They weld to me like plums."
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?

Hyperbole

Simile

Metonymy

Synecdoche
7 What does the word "exude" mean?

To repeatedly question

The exit of a cave

To release or ooze

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?

Illness

Nature

Motherhood

Capitalism
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?

ABBA

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABAB

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

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The life of Queen Victoria

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The material rewards of military victory
13 Which is most prominent in the line "Old cave of calcium"?

Internal rhyme

Sibilance

Apostrophe

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

Frightened

Hopeful

Skeptical

Exhausted
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 car

A palace

A womb

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

tercets

quatrains

quintains

couplets
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?

Pillows

Knives

Hands

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

Home and the domestic

Religion

Labor and work

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

W

S

I

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

Unexpectedly lively

Alien and bizarre

Empty and sad

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

Simile

Anaphora

Personification

Metaphor
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?

"Atoms that cripple drip"

"The blood blooms clean"

"You are the baby in the barn."

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

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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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