Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A Christian zealot

A new mother

A coal miner
2 What does the speaker allude to in the poem's final line?
Agriculture

Jesus

Irish independence

Greek mythology
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
20

10

14

6
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
Christianity

Fairytales

First-wave feminism

World War I
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?
Metonymy

Simile

Hyperbole

Synecdoche
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?
A salesman

Her child

God

A coworker
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?
Nature

Motherhood

Illness

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

A ceremony in the Catholic church

A concept in Marxist theory

A historical period in the eighteenth century
11 What is the poem's rhyme scheme?
ABAB

ABCA

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABBA
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"?
Sibilance

Apostrophe

Alliteration

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

Exhausted

Hopeful

Skeptical
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?
Healing

The preindustrial age

The baby

Intellectual enlightenment
16 To which object does the speaker compare the mine?
A palace

A car

A womb

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

quatrains

couplets

quintains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?
formations that hang from a cave ceiling

formations that rise from a cave floor

formations that push out of a cave wall

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

Domestic safety

Materialism

Luxury
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?
Pillows

Knives

Hands

Teeth
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?
Labor and work

Home and the domestic

Motherhood

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

W

I

A
23 Which best describes the mine in which the poem is partially set?
Unexpectedly lively

Spooky and suspenseful

Empty and sad

Alien and bizarre
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?
"You are the baby in the barn."

"Atoms that cripple drip"

"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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