Nick and the Candlestick Quizzes

Nick and the Candlestick Quiz

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

A new mother

A Christian zealot

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?
14

10

6

20
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?
Simile

Synecdoche

Hyperbole

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

The exit of a cave

To repeatedly question

To release or ooze
8 Who does the speaker address?
A coworker

A salesman

God

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

Motherhood

Nature

Illness
10 What is a first communion?
A ceremony in the Catholic church

A concept in Marxist theory

An examination in British elementary schools

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

It has no regular rhyme scheme

ABAB

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

The material culture and attitudes of the nineteenth century

The life of Queen Victoria

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

Alliteration

Sibilance

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

Skeptical

Hopeful

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

Healing

The baby

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

A womb

A car

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

couplets

tercets

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

formations that rise from a cave floor

underwater volcanoes in mines and caves

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

Luxury

Inequality

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

Hands

Pillows

Knives
21 Which is not a prominent theme of this poem?
Religion

Motherhood

Home and the domestic

Labor and work
22 Which sound produces assonance in the phrase "waxy stalactites"?
S

A

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"
Anaphora

Personification

Metaphor

Simile
25 Which line does not contain alliteration?
""Solid the spaces lean on, envious"

"Atoms that cripple drip"

"The blood blooms clean"

"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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