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?
Sight

Hearing

Touch

Smell
2 What is the speaker doing while the woman sings?
Walking alongside her

Looking at the town

Anchoring his fishing boat

Listening with his friend
3 What literary device is Stevens using when describing the sea's "voice"?
Irony

Foreshadowing

Personification

Metonymy
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 blended together

They are separate, not mixed

They sound the exact same
5 What word best describes the role of the woman?
Critic

Antagonist

Creator

Audience
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?
Musician

Master craftsman

Literary critic

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

vast

mysterious

inspiring
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 silent to harmonious

from ugly to beautiful

from weak to powerful
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 birds

the thunder

the wind

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

the coral

the crashing waves

the woman herself
12 Which of the following is the most likely meaning of "body wholly body"?
motionless and dead

completely alive

physically present, in the moment

physical form and nothing else
13 What does the woman 'measure to the hour'?
the sky's solitude

the wind's emptiness

the night's beauty

the sea's rage
14 What does the speaker say about the world the woman inhabits while singing?
She inhabits a world created by her singing

She inhabits the world created by the poem

She enters the world of the sea

She inhabits no world but the real one
15 What is the speaker searching for when he writes: we "knew / That we should ask this often as she sang"?
The meaning of the woman's words

A way to understand the sea

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?
Empty air

Orderly

Beautiful beyond measure

Full of meaning
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?
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?
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

The speaker does not ask loudly enough to be heard
20 What does the phrase "blessed rage for order" most likely mean?
The woman's fragile emotional state

The human urge to create systems of meaning

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?
The sea at night

Ramon Fernandez' confusion

The shadows on the horizon

Artists' words
22 What was Wallace Stevens' connection to Key West?
None; he imagined it

He vacationed there

He lived there

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

No rhyme

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme

Couplets ending each stanza
24 What is a somewhat hopeful message that the poem might have for artists?
They should never listen to critics

They do not need nature to be inspired

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 Muses

The literary establishment

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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