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?
Listening with his friend

Walking alongside her

Anchoring his fishing boat

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

Irony

Foreshadowing

Metonymy
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 blended together

They are clashing with each other

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

Audience

Antagonist

Creator
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?
Master craftsman

Literary critic

Musician

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

mysterious

inspiring

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

from weak to powerful

from silent to harmonious

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 trees

the birds

the thunder

the wind
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"?
physical form and nothing else

motionless and dead

physically present, in the moment

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

the night's beauty

the sky's solitude

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

She inhabits the world created by the poem

She inhabits no world but the real one

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"?
The dark voice of the sea

The spirit responsible for the song

The meaning of the woman's words

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

Full of meaning

Empty air

Orderly
17 What are "heaped on high horizons"?
mountainous atmospheres

glassy lights

fragrant portals

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

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

The experience is transcendent and beyond commentary

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

He is still listening to the song
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

The human urge to create systems of meaning

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

The sea at night

Ramon Fernandez' confusion

The shadows on the horizon
22 What was Wallace Stevens' connection to Key West?
He vacationed there

He lived there

None; he imagined it

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

No rhyme

Couplets ending each stanza

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme
24 What is a somewhat hopeful message that the poem might have for artists?
They should never listen to critics

Their artwork is going to last forever

They do not need nature to be inspired

Their creations can reshape the world
25 And who is vitally important to the impact of an artistic creation, as suggested by the poem?
The audience

The friends of the artist

The Muses

The literary establishment

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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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