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?

Anchoring his fishing boat

Walking alongside her

Listening with his friend

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

Metonymy

Irony

Foreshadowing

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

They are blended together

They are clashing with each other

They sound the exact same

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

Critic

Creator

Audience

Antagonist
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?

Master craftsman

Inferior poet

Literary critic

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

vast

inspiring

onmipotent

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?

volume

melody

words

passion
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 horizon

the woman herself

the coral

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

motionless and dead

completely alive

physical form and nothing else

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

the wind's emptiness

the sky's solitude

the sea's rage

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

She inhabits a world created by her singing

She enters the world of the sea

She inhabits no world but the real one

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"?

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?

Orderly

Beautiful beyond measure

Empty air

Full of meaning
17 What are "heaped on high horizons"?

mountainous atmospheres

fragrant portals

glassy lights

bronze shadows
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

The human urge to create systems of meaning

Nature's constant motion towards simplicity and order

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

The shadows on the horizon

The sea at night

Ramon Fernandez' confusion

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

He lived there

He vacationed there

He had read other poems about it

None; he imagined it
23 How would you describe Stevens' use of rhyme in this poem?

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme

Couplets ending each stanza

Occasional sporadic rhymes

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

They do not need nature to be inspired

Their creations can reshape the world

They should never listen to critics

Their artwork is going to last forever
25 And who is vitally important to the impact of an artistic creation, as suggested by the poem?

The literary establishment

The friends of the artist

The audience

The Muses

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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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