{"id":239,"date":"2025-09-22T18:10:47","date_gmt":"2025-09-22T18:10:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=239"},"modified":"2026-01-28T21:32:13","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T21:32:13","slug":"the-emperor-of-ice-cream","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=239","title":{"rendered":"The Emperor of Ice-Cream"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>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 \u201cabout being, as distinguished from seeming to be\u201d (L 341).\u00a0 Does this help you interpret the refrain, \u201cThe only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream\u201d?\u00a0 Stevens called this his favorite poem because it contains \u201cthe essential gaudiness of poetry\u201d (L 263).\u00a0 [\u201cgaudy\u201d = bright and colorful but in bad taste] What do you think he meant by this?<\/em><!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Emperor of Ice-Cream<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>by Wallace Stevens<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Call the roller of big cigars,<br \/>\nThe muscular one, and bid him whip<br \/>\nIn kitchen cups concupiscent curds.<br \/>\nLet the wenches dawdle in such dress<br \/>\nAs they are used to wear, and let the boys<br \/>\nBring flowers in last month&#8217;s newspapers.<br \/>\nLet be be finale of seem.<br \/>\nThe only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.<\/p>\n<p>Take from the dresser of deal,<br \/>\nLacking the three glass knobs, that sheet<br \/>\nOn which she embroidered fantails once<br \/>\nAnd spread it so as to cover her face.<br \/>\nIf her horny feet protrude, they come<br \/>\nTo show how cold she is, and dumb.<br \/>\nLet the lamp affix its beam.<br \/>\nThe only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Glossary<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>concupiscent<\/em>: sinfully delicious<br \/>\n<em>curds<\/em>: thickened milk, like ice cream<br \/>\n<em>wenches<\/em>: servant girls<br \/>\n<em>deal<\/em>: a cheap wood<br \/>\n<em>fantails<\/em>: fantail pigeons<br \/>\n<em>horny<\/em>: rough, calloused<\/p>\n<pre>Wallace Stevens, \"The Emperor of Ice-Cream\" from <i>Harmonium<\/i>. (New York:<strong>\u00a0<\/strong>Alfred A. Knopf, 1923. Public domain.)<\/pre>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 \u201cabout being, as distinguished from seeming to &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/?p=239\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Emperor of Ice-Cream<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[32,31],"class_list":["post-239","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-wallace-stevens","tag-poem","tag-poetry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hartfordlit.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}