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?
Touch

Smell

Hearing

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

Listening with his friend

Looking at the town

Anchoring his fishing boat
3 What literary device is Stevens using when describing the sea's "voice"?
Irony

Metonymy

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 are separate, not mixed

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

Creator

Antagonist

Critic
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?
Literary critic

Inferior poet

Master craftsman

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

onmipotent

vast

inspiring
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?
passion

words

melody

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

the thunder

the birds

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

the coral

the woman herself

the horizon
12 Which of the following is the most likely meaning of "body wholly body"?
physical form and nothing else

physically present, in the moment

completely alive

motionless and dead
13 What does the woman 'measure to the hour'?
the sea's rage

the wind's emptiness

the night's beauty

the sky's solitude
14 What does the speaker say about the world the woman inhabits while singing?
She inhabits no world but the real one

She enters the world of the sea

She inhabits a world created by her singing

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"?
The meaning of the woman's words

A way to understand the sea

The dark voice of the sea

The spirit responsible for the song
16 What does the speaker say the voice of the sky would be, without any human component?
Full of meaning

Orderly

Beautiful beyond measure

Empty air
17 What are "heaped on high horizons"?
bronze shadows

mountainous atmospheres

fragrant portals

glassy lights
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

The experience is transcendent and beyond commentary

He was not as moved by the woman as the speaker was
20 What does the phrase "blessed rage for order" most likely mean?
Nature's constant motion towards simplicity and order

The woman's fragile emotional state

The human urge to create systems of meaning

The anger felt by poets at their inability to write
21 What do the final phrases "ghostlier demarcations" and "keener sounds" refer to?
Ramon Fernandez' confusion

The shadows on the horizon

The sea at night

Artists' words
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?
No rhyme

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme

Couplets ending each stanza

Occasional sporadic rhymes
24 What is a somewhat hopeful message that the poem might have for artists?
Their creations can reshape the world

Their artwork is going to last forever

They should never listen to critics

They do not need nature to be inspired
25 And who is vitally important to the impact of an artistic creation, as suggested by the poem?
The Muses

The literary establishment

The audience

The friends of the artist

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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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