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?
Greek mythology

Irish independence

Agriculture

Jesus
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
20

6

14

10
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
World War I

Fairytales

Christianity

First-wave feminism
5 Which line is an example of simile?
"I have hung our cave with roses"

"They weld to me like plums."

"I am a miner."

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

Simile

Hyperbole

Metonymy
7 What does the word "exude" mean?
To leave out or exclude

To release or ooze

To repeatedly question

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

A coworker

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

A ceremony in the Catholic church

An examination in British elementary schools

A concept in Marxist theory
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABAB

ABBA

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABCA
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The life of Queen Victoria

The material rewards of military victory

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

Apostrophe

Internal rhyme

Sibilance
14 Which tone characterizes the poem's closing stanzas?
Frightened

Hopeful

Exhausted

Skeptical
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 pipe

A womb

A car

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

quatrains

couplets

quintains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?
underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that hang from a cave ceiling

formations that push out of a cave wall

formations that rise from a cave floor
19 What do roses and rugs most nearly symbolize?
Materialism

Luxury

Inequality

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

Hands

Knives

Pillows
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"?
S

I

A

W
23 Which best describes the mine in which the poem is partially set?
Empty and sad

Spooky and suspenseful

Alien and bizarre

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

Metaphor

Personification

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

"You are the baby in the barn."

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"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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