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 new mother

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

Agriculture

Jesus

Greek mythology
3 How many stanzas are in the poem?
10

20

14

6
4 To what does the poem most frequently allude?
World War I

First-wave feminism

Christianity

Fairytales
5 Which line is an example of simile?
"I have hung our cave with roses"

"They weld to me like plums."

"I am a miner."

"Old cave of calcium"
6 The speaker addressing her listener as "embryo" is an example of what?
Hyperbole

Metonymy

Synecdoche

Simile
7 What does the word "exude" mean?
To repeatedly question

To release or ooze

The exit of a cave

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

Her child

A salesman

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

Capitalism

Nature

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

An examination in British elementary schools

A historical period in the eighteenth century

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

ABCA

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABAB
12 What does the word "Victoriana" allude to?
The life of Queen Victoria

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The material rewards of military victory

Nothing; it is a nonsense word
13 Which is most prominent in the line "Old cave of calcium"?
Alliteration

Internal rhyme

Apostrophe

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

Exhausted

Hopeful

Frightened
15 What does the candle most nearly symbolize?
The preindustrial age

Healing

Intellectual enlightenment

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

A womb

A pipe

A car
17 What types of stanzas are in the poem?
quintains

quatrains

tercets

couplets
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?
Inequality

Luxury

Domestic safety

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

Teeth

Hands

Knives
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?
Home and the domestic

Labor and work

Religion

Motherhood
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

Alien and bizarre

Unexpectedly lively

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

Simile

Personification

Anaphora
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?
"Atoms that cripple drip"

"You are the baby in the barn."

""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"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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