Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A Christian zealot

A coal miner

A new mother

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

Irish independence

Jesus

Agriculture

Greek mythology
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?

14

20

10

6
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?

Christianity

World War I

Fairytales

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

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"Old cave of calcium"

"I am a miner."

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

Hyperbole

Simile

Synecdoche

Metonymy
7 What does the word "exude" mean?

To release or ooze

To leave out or exclude

The exit of a cave

To repeatedly question
8 Who does the speaker address?

Her child

A coworker

God

A salesman
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Motherhood

Illness

Nature

Capitalism
10 What is a first communion?

A ceremony in the Catholic church

A historical period in the eighteenth century

An examination in British elementary schools

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

ABAB

ABBA

ABCA

It has no regular rhyme scheme
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"?

Apostrophe

Alliteration

Sibilance

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

Hopeful

Skeptical

Exhausted

Frightened
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

Intellectual enlightenment

The baby

The preindustrial age

Healing
16 To which object does the speaker compare the mine?

A palace

A pipe

A car

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

quatrains

couplets

tercets

quintains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that push out of a cave wall

formations that rise from a cave floor

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

Domestic safety

Luxury

Inequality

Materialism
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?

Knives

Teeth

Hands

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

Home and the domestic

Motherhood

Labor and work

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

I

S

A

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

Spooky and suspenseful

Empty and sad

Alien and bizarre

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

Anaphora

Simile

Personification

Metaphor
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?

"Atoms that cripple drip"

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"You are the baby in the barn."

"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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