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?
Sight

Smell

Hearing

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

Anchoring his fishing boat

Looking at the town

Listening with his friend
3 What literary device is Stevens using when describing the sea's "voice"?
Metonymy

Personification

Irony

Foreshadowing
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 sound the exact same

They are blended together

They are clashing with each other
5 What word best describes the role of the woman?
Audience

Critic

Creator

Antagonist
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?
Musician

Master craftsman

Literary critic

Inferior poet
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 ugly to beautiful

from weak to powerful

from chaotic to organized

from silent to harmonious
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

melody

words

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

the wind

the thunder

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

the woman herself

the coral

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

physically present, in the moment

motionless and dead

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

the sky's solitude

the sea's rage

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

She inhabits the world created by the poem

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 dark voice of the sea

A way to understand 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?
Empty air

Orderly

Beautiful beyond measure

Full of meaning
17 What are "heaped on high horizons"?
mountainous atmospheres

glassy lights

fragrant portals

bronze shadows
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?
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?
Nature's constant motion towards simplicity and order

The human urge to create systems of meaning

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?
Ramon Fernandez' confusion

Artists' words

The shadows on the horizon

The sea at night
22 What was Wallace Stevens' connection to Key West?
None; he imagined it

He had read other poems about it

He vacationed there

He lived there
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 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 friends of the artist

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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