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?

Smell

Touch

Hearing

Sight
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"?

Personification

Metonymy

Foreshadowing

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

They sound the exact same

They are clashing with each other

They are blended together

They are separate, not mixed
5 What word best describes the role of the woman?

Audience

Critic

Antagonist

Creator
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?

Musician

Literary critic

Master craftsman

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

inspiring

mysterious

onmipotent

vast
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 chaotic to organized

from ugly to beautiful

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?

volume

passion

melody

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

the wind

the thunder

the trees

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

the crashing waves

the horizon

the woman herself

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

motionless and dead

physical form and nothing else

completely alive

physically present, in the moment
13 What does the woman 'measure to the hour'?

the sky's solitude

the sea's rage

the night's beauty

the wind's emptiness
14 What does the speaker say about the world the woman inhabits while singing?

She inhabits a world created by her singing

She inhabits no world but the real one

She inhabits the world created by the poem

She enters the world of the sea
15 What is the speaker searching for when he writes: we "knew / That we should ask this often as she sang"?

The spirit responsible for the song

The meaning of the woman's words

A way to understand the sea

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

Orderly

Beautiful beyond measure

Full of meaning

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

bronze shadows

mountainous atmospheres

glassy lights

fragrant portals
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?

He is still listening to the song

The speaker does not ask loudly enough to be heard

The experience is transcendent and beyond commentary

He was not as moved by the woman as the speaker was
20 What does the phrase "blessed rage for order" most likely mean?

The human urge to create systems of meaning

The woman's fragile emotional state

The anger felt by poets at their inability to write

Nature's constant motion towards simplicity and order
21 What do the final phrases "ghostlier demarcations" and "keener sounds" refer to?

Ramon Fernandez' confusion

The shadows on the horizon

The sea at night

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

None; he imagined it

He had read other poems about it

He vacationed there

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

Couplets ending each stanza

No rhyme

Occasional sporadic rhymes

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

Their artwork is going to last forever

They do not need nature to be inspired

Their creations can reshape the world

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 friends of the artist

The audience

The literary establishment

The Muses

The Idea of Order at Key West Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for The Idea of Order at Key West is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Ask Your Own Question

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.

Read the Study Guide for The Idea of Order at Key West…