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?

Looking at the town

Listening with his friend

Anchoring his fishing boat

Walking alongside her
3 What literary device is Stevens using when describing the sea's "voice"?

Irony

Metonymy

Personification

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

They are separate, not mixed

They are blended together

They sound the exact same

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

Audience

Antagonist

Creator

Critic
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?

Musician

Inferior poet

Literary critic

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

inspiring

onmipotent

vast

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 ugly to beautiful

from chaotic to organized
9 Which of the following does the speaker name as an important component of the woman's song, that the sea does not have?

words

passion

melody

volume
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 crashing waves

the woman herself

the horizon

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

physically present, in the moment

completely alive

motionless and dead

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

the night's beauty

the wind's emptiness

the sky's solitude

the sea's rage
14 What does the speaker say about the world the woman inhabits while singing?

She inhabits the world created by the poem

She inhabits a world created by her singing

She inhabits no world but the real one

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 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?

Full of meaning

Beautiful beyond measure

Orderly

Empty air
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 why the lights appeared the way they did

Explain who the woman was

Help him write a poem about the experience

Support his claims about the woman's genius
19 What is a possible explanation for why Fernandez does not respond?

The speaker does not ask loudly enough to be heard

He is still listening to the song

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

The experience is transcendent and beyond commentary
20 What does the phrase "blessed rage for order" most likely mean?

The human urge to create systems of meaning

The anger felt by poets at their inability to write

The woman's fragile emotional state

Nature's constant motion towards simplicity and order
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?

None; he imagined it

He lived there

He had read other poems about it

He vacationed there
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 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 audience

The Muses

The friends of the artist

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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