This poem describes preparations for a wake (a social gathering in memory of a deceased person). The two stanzas contrast the lively and youthful scene in the kitchen with the dead body laid out in the bedroom. Life and death are presented side-by-side. Stevens said the poem is “about being, as distinguished from seeming to be” (L 341). Does this help you interpret the refrain, “The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream”? Stevens called this his favorite poem because it contains “the essential gaudiness of poetry” (L 263). [“gaudy” = bright and colorful but in bad taste] What do you think he meant by this?
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.
Glossary
concupiscent: sinfully delicious
curds: thickened milk, like ice cream
wenches: servant girls
deal: a cheap wood
fantails: fantail pigeons
horny: rough, calloused
Wallace Stevens, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" from Harmonium. (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1923. Public domain.)