Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A Christian zealot

A soldier

A coal miner

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

Irish independence

Greek mythology

Jesus

Agriculture
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?

6

20

14

10
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?

First-wave feminism

Christianity

World War I

Fairytales
5 Which line is an example of simile?

"Old cave of calcium"

"I am a miner."

"They weld to me like plums."

"I have hung our cave with roses"
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?

Hyperbole

Synecdoche

Simile

Metonymy
7 What does the word "exude" mean?

The exit of a cave

To release or ooze

To leave out or exclude

To repeatedly question
8 Who does the speaker address?

A salesman

A coworker

Her child

God
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?

Motherhood

Capitalism

Illness

Nature
10 What is a first communion?

A historical period in the eighteenth century

A concept in Marxist theory

An examination in British elementary schools

A ceremony in the Catholic church
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?

ABAB

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABCA

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

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The life of Queen Victoria

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

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

Sibilance

Apostrophe

Alliteration

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

Exhausted

Hopeful

Skeptical

Frightened
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?

Intellectual enlightenment

The preindustrial age

The baby

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

A pipe

A car

A womb

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

quatrains

tercets

couplets

quintains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?

formations that hang from a cave ceiling

formations that rise from a cave floor

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that push out of a cave wall
19 What do roses and rugs most nearly symbolize?

Luxury

Materialism

Inequality

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

Pillows

Knives

Teeth

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

Motherhood

Religion

Labor and work

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

W

A

I

S
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"

Anaphora

Metaphor

Personification

Simile
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?

"The blood blooms clean"

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

"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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