The Emperor of Ice-cream
The Emperor of Ice-cream - context Summary
Composed 1922, Published 1923
Written in 1922 and first published in Wallace Stevens's 1923 collection Harmonium, this brief modernist poem stages a domestic wake and insists on sensual immediacy over ceremony. The speaker juxtaposes lively, tactile details with a matter-of-fact view of death, ending both stanzas with the refrain that "the only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream," a paradoxical slogan that privileges bodily life and appetites over appearances and ritual.
Read Complete AnalysesCall 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.
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