Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A soldier

A Christian zealot

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

Greek mythology

Irish independence

Jesus
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
20

14

6

10
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
First-wave feminism

Fairytales

World War I

Christianity
5 Which line is an example of simile?
"I am a miner."

"Old cave of calcium"

"I have hung our cave with roses"

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

Synecdoche

Simile

Hyperbole
7 What does the word "exude" mean?
The exit of a cave

To repeatedly question

To release or ooze

To leave out or exclude
8 Who does the speaker address?
A coworker

A salesman

God

Her child
9 What does the cave most nearly symbolize?
Motherhood

Illness

Capitalism

Nature
10 What is a first communion?
A concept in Marxist theory

An examination in British elementary schools

A ceremony in the Catholic church

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

ABAB

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABBA
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
The material rewards of military victory

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The life of Queen Victoria

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

Sibilance

Alliteration

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

Frightened

Skeptical

Hopeful
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 car

A womb

A palace

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

tercets

couplets

quintains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?
formations that push out of a cave wall

formations that hang from a cave ceiling

formations that rise from a cave floor

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

Domestic safety

Luxury

Materialism
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?
Hands

Knives

Teeth

Pillows
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"?
A

S

I

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

Unexpectedly lively

Empty and sad

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

Metaphor

Anaphora

Personification
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?
"You are the baby in the barn."

"The blood blooms clean"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

""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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