This is one of Wallace Stevens' best-known short poems. It is very evocative and the imagery is very unusual. It is understood to be a poem about death. The descriptions are very sensual and yet there is a formality and coldness about them. The ice cream of the title is mentioned not only in the phrase "the emperor of ice-cream," but also in the opening lines, "Call the roller of big cigars, the muscular one, and bid him whip in kitchen cups concupiscent curds." The image suggests a muscular man making ice cream (the "curds" suggest milk curdling or thickening); the word "concupiscent" is odd as it refers to sexual desire. This imagery that opens the poem is full of life: muscle, sexuality, smoking, making food. The ice cream may be being prepared for the funeral described, for a woman who will no longer know any of these activities enjoyed by the living.
The repetition of the line ending each stanza, "The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream," is a rather sad and cynical statement. It may mean that even at an event honoring someone who has died, people really only care about those still living, and the physical pleasures of life. The finality of death is described throughout the poem, but the reference to an "emperor of ice-cream" suggests that we do not think of death or prepare for it properly, and that the rituals we observe after people die are somewhat hollow and selfish.
Personally, I find this poem rather haunting, and also quite depressing, but thought-provoking.
No comments:
Post a Comment