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 soldier

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

Greek mythology

Agriculture

Jesus
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
20

6

10

14
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
First-wave feminism

Fairytales

World War I

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?
Simile

Hyperbole

Synecdoche

Metonymy
7 What does the word "exude" mean?
The exit of a cave

To leave out or exclude

To repeatedly question

To release or ooze
8 Who does the speaker address?
God

A coworker

A salesman

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

Motherhood

Capitalism

Illness
10 What is a first communion?
An examination in British elementary schools

A concept in Marxist theory

A historical period in the eighteenth century

A ceremony in the Catholic church
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 life of Queen Victoria

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century
13 Which is most prominent in the line "Old cave of calcium"?
Sibilance

Internal rhyme

Apostrophe

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

Skeptical

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 palace

A car

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

quatrains

couplets

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

formations that hang from a cave ceiling

formations that push out of a cave wall

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves
19 What do roses and rugs most nearly symbolize?
Luxury

Domestic safety

Inequality

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

Knives

Pillows

Teeth
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?
Home and the domestic

Labor and work

Motherhood

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

I

W

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

Alien and bizarre

Unexpectedly lively

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

Anaphora

Metaphor

Personification
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?
"Atoms that cripple drip"

"You are the baby in the barn."

"The blood blooms clean"

""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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