The Emperor of Ice-Cream, by Wallace Stevens


Call the roller of big cigars,
The muscular one, and bid him whip
In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.
Let the wenches dawdle in such dress
As they are used to wear, and let the boys
Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.
Let be be finale of seem.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,
Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet
On which she embroidered fantails once
And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come
To show how cold she is, and dumb.
Let the lamp affix its beam.
The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.



I once wrote a 25 page paper on this(well, there was more to the paper, but this was the center of my point), and it remains one of my favorite poems.

I have had it going on in my head all day (and the song "move it move it")


Feel free to discuss. What is his point really? Why the dairy referances?

Of course, Stevens isn't referring just to ice-cream makers here: In the larger sense he refers to any manufacturers of dairy products.

Perhaps, but I think his point is really not abou dairy, as a "thing" at all.

No one wants to play with this? It seemes like a goo idea late last night.

I'm not good with metaphors. :p

I like to move it, Move it
I like to move it , Move it
I like to move it, Move it
Ya like to (MOVE IT!) :D

That was an OUTSTANDING movie btw.

I like to move it, Move it
I like to move it , Move it
I like to move it, Move it
Ya like to (MOVE IT!) :D

That was an OUTSTANDING movie btw.


Yes it was. The skeleton in the plane.......Trust me, that song will be in your head for days. My kids still sing it. :)

"Let be be finale of seem"



The most difficult bit by far, it stands out, almost seems not to fit, yet does in a perfect sense. I actually think this is the whole point to the poam, the rest is just support for this. But what does he mean?

In the context of the rest of the poem, I think I have an answer. Actually something I commented on in my blog a long time agao.

COme on guys, we have intellectuals on this thread...what is this about? CXarp bulking? an ode to baskin robbins?

There's a corpse in the poem. That's probably important. Death as a state of absolute being (or non-being, if you wanna get picky about it), and a finale. No 'seeming' here, just being - her horny feet protrude. And the narrator walks around this shabby neighborhood, fatuously decreeing that everything be exactly as it is - "let the wenches dawdle in such dress / As they are used to wear." All emperors - all empires - are made of ice cream, impermanent and evanescent.

cf Shelley's 'Ozymandias'

The key to the poem, of course, is "concupiscent curds."

Pay attention. There's gonna be a quiz.

The poem has nothing to do with ice cream. It's about a dead woman's funeral. ;)

You're in a mobid kind of mood today, klegg.

I think you are on to it.

concupiscent curds=sex while ice cream is sensual in nature, exciting the senses like nothing else. He makes a point of showing that this is not a wealthy group, but, that they can reach the height of what it is to be human, to feel. CLeraly, he is showing how meaningless life ultimatly is, covering her dumb cold body with her one nice thing, the embrodiary. In the end, objects are meaningless. It is the experiance of living that counts. In the end, the only king is the king of experiance and sensation. (An ubermenshce? was the guy a closet nietzscen?)

I thint that he sending a clear message about pretending to live, or going threw the motions "seem", rather then actually "being" He seems to think that being is what we should be striding for, then we hit that, we are "there"

After all, the end is comming no matter what. And at that point we are irrelevent, in effect "yeasaturdays news" Note the papers is carried by the young! A clear symbol of the passing of time, and lifes natural cycles.

The "dresser of deal", lacking three knobs...stages of life, the holy trinity? or just to show that this was a women of modest mean. Or is it something more...literally dealing the cards to this women in life.

The lamp, the light of understanding, showing the corpse for what it is, just that, a corpse. Nothing more.

unlike some poets, death is not to be feared here, it is an afterthought almost.

Oh yes, the shabby group...does not matter if you are a rich man or a floor sweper, sooner or later you all face the reaper...or something like that.

Apparently there has been quite a bit written on this poem:

Emperor of Ice Cream (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/stevens/emperor.htm)

Hax!

Too deep for me.

Remember this?

Zebra - "The Wild? You mean like wipe your butt with a leaf wild?"

Lemur King, with big smile - "Who wipes?"

Oh yes, the shabby group...does not matter if you are a rich man or a floor sweper, sooner or later you all face the reaper...or something like that.

Extra points for the source of:

" Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your
worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
that's the end."

Maybe King Claudius will tell us ;)


Your poem deals with the delicious transience of life, and we are all ice-cream and like Hamlet "too much in the sun." But don't forget the irony that only once the lady is dead is she truly cold. Meanwhile puerile imagery of ice cream conveys the sense of going through the experience with the seriousness of a child at play.

If you examine the poem in another way the emporer of ice cream could be death because that is when the corpse is truly cold, and the poem could be commenting on the ephemeral nature of death as in a birth death life cycle. "To show how cold she is, and dumb./Let the lamp affix its beam." The lamp could be seen as a heat source melting her back to life, with cold and dumb perhaps being emotional and intellectual conditions of the living instead the deads' lack of temperature and oration, but I find that interpretation more of a stretch.

Extra points for the source of:

" Not where he eats, but where he is eaten: a certain
convocation of politic worms are e'en at him. Your
worm is your only emperor for diet: we fat all
creatures else to fat us, and we fat ourselves for
maggots: your fat king and your lean beggar is but
variable service, two dishes, but to one table:
that's the end."

Maybe King Claudius will tell us ;)


Your poem deals with the delicious transience of life, and we are all ice-cream and like Hamlet "too much in the sun." But don't forget the irony that only once the lady is dead is she truly cold. Meanwhile puerile imagery of ice cream conveys the sense of going through the experience with the seriousness of a child at play.

If you examine the poem in another way the emporer of ice cream could be death because that is when the corpse is truly cold, and the poem could be commenting on the ephemeral nature of death as in a birth death life cycle. "To show how cold she is, and dumb./Let the lamp affix its beam." The lamp could be seen as a heat source melting her back to life, with cold and dumb perhaps being emotional and intellectual conditions of the living instead the deads' lack of temperature and oration, but I find that interpretation more of a stretch.
When you say source do you mean where that passage comes from? If so you gave it away by mentioning Hamlet in your paragraph below it.

When you say source do you mean where that passage comes from? If so you gave it away by mentioning Hamlet in your paragraph below it.

I meant source. I didn't really mean it to be very hard, especially after I mentioned King Claudius. I wasn't just talking about I, Claudius here. I was hoping it would be pretty obvious. That's more of a clue than mentioning another passage from the same play and citing it without saying it's connected to the uncited passage :).

Thanks for that link, MadRonin - some interesting readings of the poem. The one by Kenneth Lincoln is shockingly stupid, though - he doesn't seem to know what an iamb is.

Apparently there has been quite a bit written on this poem:

Emperor of Ice Cream (http://www.english.uiuc.edu/maps/poets/s_z/stevens/emperor.htm)

Thanks for that link, MadRonin - some interesting readings of the poem. The one by Kenneth Lincoln is shockingly stupid, though - he doesn't seem to know what an iamb is.


Yes, Interesting thoughts. Vendler Seems on point to me with this"In choosing to "let the lamp affix its beam," as in a morgue, and in acquiescing to the command, "Let be be finale of seem," Stevens makes his momentous choice for reality over appearance.
"

Which falls into my interpretation, but the rest is a reach..EXcept for, perhaps, his mother's death being invoved. the is an air of absurdity in the poem, in the behavior, and I have seen that at my brothers death.

Kenneth Lincoln seems to like to hear himself talk, like a lot of clever people(cough reactionary cough) he is not as smart as he thinks he is...and ends up saying very little. The point is, I think, that the women was not a wench, but of simple means, covered in the end with the linen that was her finest possicion. But that in itself can not give her body dignity.

AH, I am glad you guys jumped in...I needed something challenging and stimulating today, I had a rough night.

Lincoln gets other things wrong too: Apparently he thinks the line "Let the wenches dawdle in such dress/As they are used to wear" (meaning 'tell the wenches to wear whatever outfits they usually wear") has something to do with "[t]he woman's dresser, where she 'used to wear' lingerie." Lingerie? What lingerie? And is he telling us that she used to wear lingerie in the dresser? This sort of slack, half-assed, poorly written gibberish gives English profs a bad name. A poem may be open-ended and vague at times, but a good explication should be crisp, clear, and specific.

Kenneth Lincoln seems to like to hear himself talk, like a lot of clever people(cough reactionary cough) he is not as smart as he thinks he is...and ends up saying very little. The point is, I think, that the women was not a wench, but of simple means, covered in the end with the linen that was her finest possicion. But that in itself can not give her body dignity.

You are right, he confuses the two. NOw the wench are a bit tricky at first...why are they there? To show that it is a "bad" neiborhood? I think it is another nod toward sensuality...sensation itself, both touch, and the pleasure we get from a comely lass.

Sure - and "wench" could mean prostitute, but it can also indicate a girl or young woman. And there ain't no lingerie in sight. Whatever the wenches usually wear, Stevens doesn't describe it. Maybe Lincoln is telling us more about his own concupiscent fantasies than what's actually going on in Uncle Wally's poem.

LOL. I think you hit that dead on. :D