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

Sight

Hearing
2 What is the speaker doing while the woman sings?
Looking at the town

Listening with his friend

Walking alongside her

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

Metonymy

Personification

Irony
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 sound the exact same

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

Creator

Antagonist

Audience
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?
Inferior poet

Literary critic

Musician

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

mysterious

inspiring

onmipotent
8 In the speaker's mind, what transformation does the sea undergo from the poem's beginning to its end?
from ugly to beautiful

from chaotic to organized

from silent to harmonious

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?
words

volume

melody

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

the birds

the trees

the wind
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"?
completely alive

motionless and dead

physically present, in the moment

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

the night's beauty

the sea's rage

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 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"?
A way to understand the sea

The dark voice of the sea

The meaning of the woman's words

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

Empty air

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

Support his claims about the woman's genius

Explain who the woman was

Help him write a poem about the experience
19 What is a possible explanation for why Fernandez does not respond?
He was not as moved by the woman as the speaker was

He is still listening to the song

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?
Nature's constant motion towards simplicity and order

The human urge to create systems of meaning

The woman's fragile emotional state

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 sea at night

The shadows on the horizon

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?
Occasional sporadic rhymes

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme

Couplets ending each stanza

No rhyme
24 What is a somewhat hopeful message that the poem might have for artists?
Their creations can reshape the world

They do not need nature to be inspired

Their artwork is going to last forever

They should never listen to critics
25 And who is vitally important to the impact of an artistic creation, as suggested by the poem?
The Muses

The audience

The friends of the artist

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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