How does Wallace Stevens use imagery in The Idea of Order at Key West?

Although the poem opens with a reference to a woman singing by the sea, the focus is on that sea, which becomes a metaphor for human experience and how it can be changed through artistic expression. The poem contains a single concentrated image of meditation from beginning to end on this dominant theme. As the speaker listens to the girl's song, he contemplates the relation of poetry to reality and the power of the imagination.

The sea suggests a state of chaos in its "constant cry," "grinding water," and "gasping wind." Later, Stevens reinforces these images with his description of "the ever-hooded, tragic-gestured sea" expressing a "dark voice." Here, the turbulence of the water symbolizes the turbulence of life. The poem illustrates the difficult task of understanding the flux of life in the following lines:

The meaningless plungings of water and the wind, Theatrical distances, bronze shadows heaped On high horizons, mountainous atmospheres Of sky and sea.