[one] epiphanies/pure discovery + "The Idea of Order at Key West"

Throughout history, the sea has been a profound source of inspiration for many artists, from painters to poets. However, in his poem "The Idea of Order at Key West", poet Wallace Stevens argues that there is something far more inspirational than "The meaningless plungings of water and the wind" created by the sea. Wallace's ultimate inspiration comes in the form of a singing woman who "was the single artificer of the world". She seems to be a metaphor for figures like the Muses of ancient Greece, who were the embodiments of "divine and pure inspiration" or epiphanies, that so many people across history have known about and sought for desperately but have seldom found.

In the last third of the poem, (from "Ramon Fernandez, tell me, if you know....until the end), Stevens laments the fact that few people can grasp "true inspiration/discovery" (the song/figure of his "Muse") because they are too busy imposing their own predispositions and classifications on the world. In his description about how the lights from the town and fishing boats "portioned out the sea,--fixing emblazoned zones", he created a metaphor for how mankind's "Blessed rage for order" has blinded us from experiencing "true and pure discovery".