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 new mother

A soldier
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

14

10
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?

Fairytales

World War I

Christianity

First-wave feminism
5 Which line is an example of simile?

"They weld to me like plums."

"Old cave of calcium"

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"I am a miner."
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?

Simile

Hyperbole

Metonymy

Synecdoche
7 What does the word "exude" mean?

The exit of a cave

To repeatedly question

To leave out or exclude

To release or ooze
8 Who does the speaker address?

God

Her child

A coworker

A salesman
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Capitalism

Illness

Nature

Motherhood
10 What is a first communion?

A ceremony in the Catholic church

A concept in Marxist theory

A historical period in the eighteenth century

An examination in British elementary schools
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABBA

ABAB

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABCA
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The life of Queen Victoria

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

Alliteration

Sibilance

Internal rhyme

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

Exhausted

Hopeful

Skeptical

Frightened
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

The preindustrial age

Intellectual enlightenment

Healing

The baby
16 To which object does the speaker compare the mine?

A palace

A womb

A car

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

quatrains

tercets

quintains

couplets
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?

Materialism

Inequality

Luxury

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

Pillows

Teeth

Knives

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

Religion

Motherhood

Labor and work

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

S

A

W

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

Alien and bizarre

Spooky and suspenseful

Unexpectedly lively

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

Personification

Metaphor

Simile

Anaphora
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?

"The blood blooms clean"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"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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