Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A coal miner

A new mother

A Christian zealot

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

Agriculture

Jesus

Irish independence

Greek mythology
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?

6

14

10

20
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?

"They weld to me like plums."

"I am a miner."

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"Old cave of calcium"
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?

Hyperbole

Synecdoche

Metonymy

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

Her child

God
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Illness

Motherhood

Nature

Capitalism
10 What is a first communion?

A concept in Marxist theory

An examination in British elementary schools

A ceremony in the Catholic church

A historical period in the eighteenth century
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABBA

ABAB

ABCA

It has no regular rhyme scheme
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?

The material rewards of military victory

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

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

Sibilance

Alliteration

Apostrophe

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

Skeptical

Exhausted

Frightened

Hopeful
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 womb

A pipe

A car

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

quintains

tercets

quatrains

couplets
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

formations that push out of a cave wall

formations that rise from a cave floor

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

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

Materialism

Domestic safety

Luxury

Inequality
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?

Teeth

Pillows

Hands

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

Motherhood

Religion

Labor and work

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

I

A

W

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

Unexpectedly lively

Empty and sad

Alien and bizarre

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?

""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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