The Emperor of Ice-Cream by Wallace Stevens is a short poem consisting of only 16 lines. In this poem, there is clear existentialist influence. In his bio, it reads that Stevens regarded religious explanations of the world as fiction, and I believe The Emperor of Ice-Cream plays with that idea.
The poem throughout contains imagery, it begins with "Call the roller of big cigars/The muscular one, and bid him whip/In the kitchen cups concupiscent curds." Concupiscent refers to a strong sexual desire. So we begin this poem with the image of a muscular man, maybe one who celebrates by rolling cigars, whipping up lustful curds. It is a strange start to a poem, it leaves the reader unsure of the mood--whether it is a celebration, or not. The imagery continues throughout the poem, and later says for the "boys/Bring flowers in last month's newspapers./Let be be finale of seem." with this new image, the reader now understands a death has occurred.
In the second stanza, we get an image of the person who died. Her face is covered with a sheet she embroidered herself, her 'horny feet' stick out, and she is 'cold' and 'dumb'. The poem ends the first and second stanza's with "The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream."
Using this ending in a poem that deals with death of a woman leads me to believe that he does not believe there is a God, or any other religious leader. He uses a silly thing, such as ice-cream, to say that there is no emperor with the exception of ice-cream. I feel that this was his rebuttal to those who seek answers, it his existentialist answer: there is life, there is death, but God is silly fiction.
I agree with Alexandria, I do see a strong contrast between life and death in the poem. The first stanza sounds so "alive", it sounds like a celebration (with the rolling cigars). However, in the second stanza, Stevens uses it to describe the death of a person. Since this poem deals mostly about death, I think the "ice cream" Wallace Stevens mentions in the poem is referring to his idea of life rather than a religious idea or about God. Ice cream resembles how life is short, yet sweet. Ice cream is delicious but melts quickly. Therefore one needs to simply enjoy his or her life before it ends. (or when the ice cream melts). It could also mean that time passes by quickly, one needs to value life and make the best of it.
ReplyDelete"The Emperor of Ice Cream" is very much open to interpretation. Although suggests meanings behind his word choice, there is no actual meaning. Some readers may take it as a good celebration for the woman's funeral, others may see it as a tragedy. After all, life must go on. Overall this is a poem that has no specific meaning, but it is meant for the purpose of creating your own interpretation. Honestly I do not think the title truly was meant for this poem, but Its not a big deal... I wont lose any sleep over it.
ReplyDeleteThat's very interesting to me, I didn't see the religion aspect of the ice cream. It makes a lot of sense. The way I interpreted it was ice-cream is the only 'playful' thing in this poem, and it takes a break from the death and seriousness. Yet, it appeared to me as being dead...the funeral...and ice-cream is cold, but sweet. So the woman might have been a kind hearted, sweet lady. Also the comment about ice-cream melting fast and life ending, possibly abruptly, is a good way to describe this meaning. Or that life is short and death is inevitable...so eat the damn ice-cream. Indulge
ReplyDeleteI agree with most of you, I also did not see the religion aspect of the ice crem in "The Emperor of Ice Cream". I found it quite interesting how it was interpreted, it was set out to be cold but sweet and that made the moral of the story so much more meaningful.
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