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

Hearing

Touch

Sight
2 What is the speaker doing while the woman sings?
Anchoring his fishing boat

Looking at the town

Listening with his friend

Walking alongside her
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 sound the exact same

They are separate, not mixed

They are blended together

They are clashing with each other
5 What word best describes the role of the woman?
Antagonist

Critic

Audience

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

onmipotent

mysterious

vast
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 chaotic to organized

from weak to powerful

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

volume

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

the birds

the thunder

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

the crashing waves

the woman herself

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

motionless and dead

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 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"?
A way to understand the sea

The spirit responsible for the song

The dark voice of the sea

The meaning of the woman's words
16 What does the speaker say the voice of the sky would be, without any human component?
Orderly

Empty air

Full of meaning

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

glassy lights

bronze shadows

mountainous atmospheres
18 What does the speaker ask Ramon Fernandez to do?
Explain who the woman was

Help him write a poem about the experience

Support his claims about the woman's genius

Explain why the lights appeared the way they did
19 What is a possible explanation for why Fernandez does not respond?
He is still listening to the song

The experience is transcendent and beyond commentary

The speaker does not ask loudly enough to be heard

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 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

Ramon Fernandez' confusion

Artists' words

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

He had read other poems about it

He vacationed there

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

Occasional sporadic rhymes

Couplets ending each stanza

No rhyme
24 What is a somewhat hopeful message that the poem might have for artists?
They do not need nature to be inspired

They should never listen to critics

Their creations can reshape the world

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 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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