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

Smell

Sight
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"?
Irony

Foreshadowing

Personification

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 are separate, not mixed

They sound the exact same

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

Critic

Antagonist

Creator
6 To what role is Ramon Fernandez most comparable?
Literary critic

Musician

Inferior poet

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

vast

mysterious

inspiring
8 In the speaker's mind, what transformation does the sea undergo from the poem's beginning to its end?
from chaotic to organized

from silent to harmonious

from ugly to beautiful

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?
volume

words

passion

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

the birds

the trees

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

the horizon

the coral

the woman herself
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 night's beauty

the sea's rage

the wind's emptiness

the sky's solitude
14 What does the speaker say about the world the woman inhabits while singing?
She enters the world of the sea

She inhabits no world but the real one

She inhabits the world created by the poem

She inhabits a world created by her singing
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?
Beautiful beyond measure

Orderly

Empty air

Full of meaning
17 What are "heaped on high horizons"?
glassy lights

mountainous atmospheres

bronze shadows

fragrant portals
18 What does the speaker ask Ramon Fernandez to do?
Support his claims about the woman's genius

Explain why the lights appeared the way they did

Help him write a poem about the experience

Explain who the woman was
19 What is a possible explanation for why Fernandez does not respond?
He was not as moved by the woman as the speaker was

The speaker does not ask loudly enough to be heard

The experience is transcendent and beyond commentary

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

The anger felt by poets at their inability to write

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?
Ramon Fernandez' confusion

The shadows on the horizon

Artists' words

The sea at night
22 What was Wallace Stevens' connection to Key West?
He lived there

He vacationed there

He had read other poems about it

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

No rhyme

Occasional sporadic rhymes

Intricate, consistent rhyme scheme
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

They should never listen to critics

Their artwork is going to last forever
25 And who is vitally important to the impact of an artistic creation, as suggested by the poem?
The literary establishment

The friends of the artist

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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