Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A coal miner

A Christian zealot

A soldier

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

Greek mythology

Agriculture

Irish independence

Jesus
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?

6

14

20

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 have hung our cave with roses"

"I am a miner."

"Old cave of calcium"

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

Metonymy

Hyperbole

Synecdoche

Simile
7 What does the word "exude" mean?

To release or ooze

To repeatedly question

To leave out or exclude

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

A coworker

God

A salesman

Her child
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Nature

Capitalism

Motherhood

Illness
10 What is a first communion?

A ceremony in the Catholic church

A historical period in the eighteenth century

A concept in Marxist theory

An examination in British elementary schools
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 life of Queen Victoria

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

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

Apostrophe

Sibilance

Internal rhyme

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

Frightened

Hopeful

Exhausted

Skeptical
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

Intellectual enlightenment

The baby

Healing

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?

couplets

quintains

quatrains

tercets
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

formations that push out of a cave wall

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that rise from a cave floor

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

Inequality

Domestic safety

Materialism

Luxury
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?

Teeth

Knives

Pillows

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

Motherhood

Religion

Home and the domestic

Labor and work
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

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"

Anaphora

Personification

Simile

Metaphor
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?

"You are the baby in the barn."

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"The blood blooms clean"

"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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