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

Sight

Hearing

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

Looking at the town

Walking alongside her

Listening with his friend

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

Metonymy

Personification

Foreshadowing

Irony
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 clashing with each other

They are blended together

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

Creator

Audience

Critic

Antagonist
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?

Inferior poet

Literary critic

Master craftsman

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

onmipotent

mysterious

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 ugly to beautiful

from weak to powerful

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?

volume

passion

words

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

the birds

the thunder

the wind

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

the coral

the horizon

the woman herself

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

physical form and nothing else

physically present, in the moment

motionless and dead

completely alive
13 What does the woman 'measure to the hour'?

the night's beauty

the sky's solitude

the wind's emptiness

the sea's rage
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

The spirit responsible for the song

The dark voice of the sea

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

Empty air

Orderly
17 What are "heaped on high horizons"?

mountainous atmospheres

fragrant portals

bronze shadows

glassy lights
18 What does the speaker ask Ramon Fernandez to do?

Support his claims about the woman's genius

Help him write a poem about the experience

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 speaker does not ask loudly enough to be heard

The experience is transcendent and beyond commentary

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

He is still listening to the song
20 What does the phrase "blessed rage for order" most likely mean?

The human urge to create systems of meaning

Nature's constant motion towards simplicity and order

The anger felt by poets at their inability to write

The woman's fragile emotional state
21 What do the final phrases "ghostlier demarcations" and "keener sounds" refer to?

Artists' words

The sea at night

The shadows on the horizon

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

None; he imagined it

He vacationed there

He lived there

He had read other poems about it
23 How would you describe Stevens' use of rhyme in this poem?

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme

No rhyme

Couplets ending each stanza

Occasional sporadic rhymes
24 What is a somewhat hopeful message that the poem might have for artists?

Their artwork is going to last forever

Their creations can reshape the world

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 friends of the artist

The literary establishment

The audience

The Muses

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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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