The Idea of Order at Key West

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The Idea of Order at Key West is a celebrated modernist poem by Wallace Stevens that meditates on the relationship between imagination, perception, and the natural world through the figure of a woman singing by the sea.

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The Idea of Order at Key West canonical 1

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Statements (47)

Predicate Object
instanceOf poem
author Wallace Stevens NERFINISHED
centralImage a woman singing by the sea
compositionPeriod early 1930s
countryOfOrigin United States of America
surface form: United States
criticalReputation frequently anthologized in American poetry collections
one of Wallace Stevens's most celebrated poems
featuresCharacter Ramon Fernandez NERFINISHED
unnamed woman singer
firstPublicationYear 1934
firstPublishedIn Poetry magazine NERFINISHED
form free verse
genre lyric poetry
hasSubject poetry as a mode of ordering experience
tension between reality and imagination
influencedBy philosophical idealism
symbolist poetry
language English
laterCollectedIn Ideas of Order NERFINISHED
The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens NERFINISHED
lineCountApproximate over 70 lines
literaryMovement Modernism
literaryTechnique enjambment
extended metaphor
imagery of sea and sound
philosophical meditation
symbolism
meter variable meter
narrativePerspective first-person observer
notableLine She sang beyond the genius of the sea
The maker’s rage to order words of the sea
The sea was not a mask. No more was she.
relatedWorkByAuthor Of Modern Poetry NERFINISHED
Sunday Morning NERFINISHED
The Snow Man NERFINISHED
rhymeScheme irregular
setting Key West, Florida NERFINISHED
seashore
subjectMatter construction of reality through art
interaction between song and sea
theme artistic creation
imagination
nature and human consciousness
order and chaos
perception
relationship between mind and external world
role of the artist

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Wallace Stevens notableWork The Idea of Order at Key West