The Emperor of Ice Cream

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.
 
    -- Wallace Stevens
 
 
My Reading:



The first line of the poem tells us that a roller of big cigars has been called to do something. The big cigars refer to the wrapping of cured tobacco in a cigar leaf and the man called for is a worker from a tobacco industry. The second and third line exposes that the man is muscular, and he is called to whip/ In the kitchen cups concupiscent curds. Why is the muscular man making the ice cream? Probably he is a relative to whom the festivity is celebrated for. The concupiscent curds might relate to the ice cream, (as it was mentioned in the title), being a mouth-watering dessert. Concupiscent opens the window to a wider scene which is presented in the next three stanzas. The word itself entails a powerful physical attraction following an itch of desire. On the scene, girls and boys are present: the girls, described as lowly and promiscuous, and the boys flirting with the girls. The ice cream and the muscular man symbolize the pleasure and attraction of the men and women. 

 

With how the first stanza is presented, I can tell that people are having fun. They are eating, chatting, including the flirting of females and males. Now where is this festive occasion? 

 

The second stanza reveals that there is a dead woman in the poem. A funeral it is as where the people at. It is quite awkward how the dead woman is presented: her drawer lacks three glass knobs, her face covered with the fantails she once embroidered; her horny feet protrude because the fantail lacked enough length to cover them. The woman must have frequently used her drawer since they already lost knobs. Being unable to buy new one tells that she was a woman of poverty. Even the sheet that used to cover herself was only an embroidered sheet of pigeons and birds, and lacks the length. Her feet, as said, showed how cold and dumb she was – completely unaware that a festivity was going on during her wake. In contrast with the typical scene of mourning and weeping during wake, this scene showed a loud neighborhood lively eating, chatting, and flirting. 

 

The emperor of ice cream being the one giving food is the bringer of the festive air. At any occasion, there he is. What happened in the poem shows that the people seize the day when it calls for a celebration. They came to show deference to the muscular man, who must be a relative, who calls an attention by his physique and the ice cream he makes. The line Let be be the finale of seem means that what happens everyday is the same with what happens on that day. The wenches would wear what they were used to wear and the men would bring flowers in newspapers, unlike the properly wrapped from flower shops. Also, they wouldn’t even pretend mourning.

 

The poem in overall shows a set of ironic images. I bears a musicality because of the  alliterations in the lines.