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?

Hearing

Sight

Touch

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

Walking alongside her

Listening with his friend

Anchoring his fishing boat

Looking at the town
3 What literary device is Stevens using when describing the sea's "voice"?

Metonymy

Personification

Foreshadowing

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 are separate, not mixed

They sound the exact same

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

Antagonist

Creator

Critic

Audience
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?

Musician

Literary critic

Inferior poet

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

mysterious

onmipotent

vast

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

from weak to powerful

from ugly to beautiful

from chaotic to organized

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

passion

melody

words

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

the trees

the birds

the thunder

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

the crashing waves

the woman herself

the horizon

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

physically present, in the moment

motionless and dead

physical form and nothing else

completely alive
13 What does the woman 'measure to the hour'?

the night's beauty

the wind's emptiness

the sky's solitude

the sea's rage
14 What does the speaker say about the world the woman inhabits while singing?

She inhabits no world but the real one

She enters the world of the sea

She inhabits the world created by the poem

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

A way to understand the sea

The meaning of the woman's words

The spirit responsible for the song

The dark voice of the sea
16 What does the speaker say the voice of the sky would be, without any human component?

Beautiful beyond measure

Orderly

Full of meaning

Empty air
17 What are "heaped on high horizons"?

glassy lights

fragrant portals

mountainous atmospheres

bronze shadows
18 What does the speaker ask Ramon Fernandez to do?

Help him write a poem about the experience

Explain why the lights appeared the way they did

Support his claims about the woman's genius

Explain who the woman was
19 What is a possible explanation for why Fernandez does not respond?

The speaker does not ask loudly enough to be heard

He is still listening to the song

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

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

The woman's fragile emotional state

Nature's constant motion towards simplicity and order

The human urge to create systems of meaning
21 What do the final phrases "ghostlier demarcations" and "keener sounds" refer to?

The shadows on the horizon

Ramon Fernandez' confusion

The sea at night

Artists' words
22 What was Wallace Stevens' connection to Key West?

He vacationed there

None; he imagined it

He had read other poems about it

He lived there
23 How would you describe Stevens' use of rhyme in this poem?

No rhyme

Occasional sporadic rhymes

Couplets ending each stanza

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme
24 What is a somewhat hopeful message that the poem might have for artists?

Their creations can reshape the world

Their artwork is going to last forever

They do not need nature to be inspired

They should never listen to critics
25 And who is vitally important to the impact of an artistic creation, as suggested by the poem?

The literary establishment

The Muses

The friends of the artist

The audience

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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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