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 new mother

A coal miner
2 What does the speaker allude to in the poem's final line?
Irish independence

Greek mythology

Jesus

Agriculture
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
14

6

20

10
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
First-wave feminism

World War I

Fairytales

Christianity
5 Which line is an example of simile?
"Old cave of calcium"

"I am a miner."

"They weld to me like plums."

"I have hung our cave with roses"
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?
Metonymy

Simile

Hyperbole

Synecdoche
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?
A coworker

God

Her child

A salesman
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?
Nature

Capitalism

Motherhood

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

An examination in British elementary schools

A concept in Marxist theory

A ceremony in the Catholic church
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABCA

ABBA

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABAB
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
The material rewards of military victory

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The life of Queen Victoria

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

Apostrophe

Alliteration

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

Hopeful

Exhausted

Frightened
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 car

A pipe

A womb

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

tercets

quintains

quatrains
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

Materialism

Luxury

Domestic safety
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?
Knives

Teeth

Pillows

Hands
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?
Motherhood

Labor and work

Religion

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

W

I

S
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"
Simile

Anaphora

Personification

Metaphor
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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