Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A new mother

A Christian zealot

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

Irish independence

Greek mythology

Jesus
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
6

14

10

20
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
Christianity

Fairytales

World War I

First-wave feminism
5 Which line is an example of simile?
"Old cave of calcium"

"I have hung our cave with roses"

"I am a miner."

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

Metonymy

Hyperbole

Simile
7 What does the word "exude" mean?
To leave out or exclude

To repeatedly question

The exit of a cave

To release or ooze
8 Who does the speaker address?
God

Her child

A salesman

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

Nature

Capitalism

Motherhood
10 What is a first communion?
A historical period in the eighteenth century

An examination in British elementary schools

A ceremony in the Catholic church

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

ABCA

ABBA

It has no regular rhyme scheme
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
The material rewards of military victory

Nothing; it is a nonsense word

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The life of Queen Victoria
13 Which is most prominent in the line "Old cave of calcium"?
Apostrophe

Internal rhyme

Alliteration

Sibilance
14 Which tone characterizes the poem's closing stanzas?
Hopeful

Exhausted

Skeptical

Frightened
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?
Intellectual enlightenment

Healing

The preindustrial age

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

A car

A pipe

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

quintains

tercets

quatrains
18 What does the word "stalactites" mean?
formations that rise from a cave floor

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

formations that push out of a cave wall

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

Domestic safety

Luxury

Inequality
20 What object does the speaker compare fish to?
Teeth

Hands

Knives

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

Motherhood

Home and the domestic

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

W

A

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

Empty and sad

Unexpectedly lively

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

Anaphora

Simile

Personification
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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