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

Hearing

Touch

Sight
2 What is the speaker doing while the woman sings?

Listening with his friend

Looking at the town

Anchoring his fishing boat

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

Irony

Personification

Foreshadowing

Metonymy
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?

Audience

Creator

Critic

Antagonist
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?

Master craftsman

Musician

Literary critic

Inferior poet
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 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?

melody

passion

volume

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

the trees

the wind

the birds

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

the horizon

the coral

the woman herself

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

physically present, in the moment

motionless and dead

physical form and nothing else

completely alive
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 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"?

The spirit responsible for the song

A way to understand the sea

The meaning of the woman's words

The dark voice of the sea
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

fragrant portals

glassy lights

mountainous atmospheres
18 What does the speaker ask Ramon Fernandez to do?

Help him write a poem about the experience

Support his claims about the woman's genius

Explain who the woman was

Explain why the lights appeared the way they did
19 What is a possible explanation for why Fernandez does not respond?

The experience is transcendent and beyond commentary

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
20 What does the phrase "blessed rage for order" most likely mean?

The woman's fragile emotional state

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
21 What do the final phrases "ghostlier demarcations" and "keener sounds" refer to?

The sea at night

Artists' words

The shadows on the horizon

Ramon Fernandez' confusion
22 What was Wallace Stevens' connection to Key West?

He vacationed there

He lived there

He had read other poems about it

None; he imagined it
23 How would you describe Stevens' use of rhyme in this poem?

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme

Couplets ending each stanza

Occasional sporadic rhymes

No rhyme
24 What is a somewhat hopeful message that the poem might have for artists?

Their artwork is going to last forever

They do not need nature to be inspired

Their creations can reshape the world

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 friends of the artist

The literary establishment

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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