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

Hearing

Sight

Smell
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

Foreshadowing

Irony

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 sound the exact same

They are clashing with each other

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

Critic

Creator

Audience

Antagonist
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?

Master craftsman

Inferior poet

Literary critic

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

vast

inspiring

onmipotent

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

volume

melody

passion
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 horizon

the woman herself

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

motionless and dead

physical form and nothing else

physically present, in the moment

completely alive
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 the world created by the poem

She inhabits no world but the real one

She inhabits a world created by her singing

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?

Empty air

Full of meaning

Beautiful beyond measure

Orderly
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 who the woman was

Support his claims about the woman's genius

Help him write a poem about the experience

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

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

The experience is transcendent and beyond commentary

The speaker does not ask loudly enough to be heard
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 sea at night

Ramon Fernandez' confusion

Artists' words

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

He had read other poems about it

He vacationed there

None; he imagined it

He lived there
23 How would you describe Stevens' use of rhyme in this poem?

Occasional sporadic rhymes

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme

No rhyme

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

Their artwork is going to last forever

They should never listen to critics

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 Muses

The friends of the artist

The audience

The literary establishment

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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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