The Idea of Order at Key West Quizzes

The Idea of Order at Key West Quiz

1 What is the primary sense evoked throughout the poem?

Touch

Sight

Smell

Hearing
2 What is the speaker doing while the woman sings?

Walking alongside her

Looking at the town

Anchoring his fishing boat

Listening with his friend
3 What literary device is Stevens using when describing the sea's "voice"?

Foreshadowing

Personification

Metonymy

Irony
4 How are the woman's song and the sound of the water described in relation to each other?

They are clashing with each other

They sound the exact same

They are separate, not mixed

They are blended together
5 What word best describes the role of the woman?

Audience

Creator

Critic

Antagonist
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?

Inferior poet

Master craftsman

Musician

Literary critic
7 Which of the following is NOT a suitable adjective to describe the sea in this poem?

onmipotent

inspiring

vast

mysterious
8 In the speaker's mind, what transformation does the sea undergo from the poem's beginning to its end?

from silent to harmonious

from weak to powerful

from chaotic to organized

from ugly to beautiful
9 Which of the following does the speaker name as an important component of the woman's song, that the sea does not have?

melody

words

passion

volume
10 Other than the water, what component of nature does the speaker definitely listen to?

the thunder

the wind

the birds

the trees
11 What sight becomes more poignant or "acute" under the influence of the woman's song?

the horizon

the coral

the woman herself

the crashing waves
12 Which of the following is the most likely meaning of "body wholly body"?

motionless and dead

completely alive

physically present, in the moment

physical form and nothing else
13 What does the woman 'measure to the hour'?

the sky's solitude

the sea's rage

the wind's emptiness

the night's beauty
14 What does the speaker say about the world the woman inhabits while singing?

She enters the world of the sea

She inhabits no world but the real one

She inhabits a world created by her singing

She inhabits the world created by the poem
15 What is the speaker searching for when he writes: we "knew / That we should ask this often as she sang"?

The meaning of the woman's words

The dark voice of the sea

The spirit responsible for the song

A way to understand the sea
16 What does the speaker say the voice of the sky would be, without any human component?

Full of meaning

Orderly

Empty air

Beautiful beyond measure
17 What are "heaped on high horizons"?

mountainous atmospheres

bronze shadows

fragrant portals

glassy lights
18 What does the speaker ask Ramon Fernandez to do?

Explain why the lights appeared the way they did

Explain who the woman was

Support his claims about the woman's genius

Help him write a poem about the experience
19 What is a possible explanation for why Fernandez does not respond?

He was not as moved by the woman as the speaker was

He is still listening to the song

The speaker does not ask loudly enough to be heard

The experience is transcendent and beyond commentary
20 What does the phrase "blessed rage for order" most likely mean?

The anger felt by poets at their inability to write

Nature's constant motion towards simplicity and order

The human urge to create systems of meaning

The woman's fragile emotional state
21 What do the final phrases "ghostlier demarcations" and "keener sounds" refer to?

The shadows on the horizon

Artists' words

Ramon Fernandez' confusion

The sea at night
22 What was Wallace Stevens' connection to Key West?

None; he imagined it

He vacationed there

He lived there

He had read other poems about it
23 How would you describe Stevens' use of rhyme in this poem?

Occasional sporadic rhymes

Couplets ending each stanza

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme

No rhyme
24 What is a somewhat hopeful message that the poem might have for artists?

Their creations can reshape the world

They should never listen to critics

Their artwork is going to last forever

They do not need nature to be inspired
25 And who is vitally important to the impact of an artistic creation, as suggested by the poem?

The Muses

The literary establishment

The audience

The friends of the artist

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Study Guide for The Idea of Order at Key West

Ideas of Order at Key West study guide contains a biography of Wallace Stevens, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

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