My reading of Wallace Stevens' "The Emperor of Ice Cream"

"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 the 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.

Stevens, Wallace. "The Emperor of Ice-Cream." Stevens: Collected Poetry and Prose. Eds. Frank Kermode and Joan Richardson. New York: Library of America, 1997. 50.

The first metaphor we want to look at here is obviously "the roller of big cigars." In a post-Bill Clinton administration America, the phallic implications of cigars really don't require that much explanation. In any case, we should remember that typically, in the Western world at least, the phallus, in all its glory [sarcasm] represents either power or ego, or some mixture thereof. In the second line Stevens presents the image of a muscular man whipping... hmm... sadomasochism anyone. The terms concupiscent and curds are juxtaposed with great effect. For those who haven't spent countless hours and unknown hordes of deferred expenditure exfoliating the decade in classrooms, "concupiscent" essentially means sexually sinful, in the Judeo-Christian sense. The thick milky white appearance of curds bolsters that reading. The assumption is that the whipped curds will provide nourishment, hence the backdrop of the kitchen, but the next line introduces dawdling “wenches” in old clothes. Certainly these women, presumably prostitutes, haven't had their desires fulfilled through sex. This is reiterated with the image of the boys bring flowers in use newspapers. The newspaper's primary function was to provide timely information; once that information has become irrelevant, the newspaper is either discarded or used in another way. Sex is essentially the same. The fleeting moments leading up to climax are certainly enjoyable, but in the end, we're left with a sticky mess -- much like melted ice cream, not so sweet anymore. Hence, the poet asks the reader to willingly participate in an illusion, would be alchemical-hermetic assertion, a cryptic equation. To let what is apparent in the phenomenological present to be so for all time -- this is the sum total of concupiscent desire. So the Emperor of ice cream is the one who controls the process of its melting, i.e. God, time, what have you. Because of their lack of power, the blood engorged penis promising ever infrequent petit morte, is in effect a circumstantial god. That's part of the tragedy of this poem.

The first line of second stanza mentions the dresser of the deal. Deal is both a type of wood and a transaction, as well as yet another metaphor for an erect penis. Deal wood was often used in the crafting of hope chests. The transaction implied here is of course the preliminary exchange of money in acts of prostitution; however, a nonexistent marriage contract is also implied here. Clearly this is a woman without hope. The sheet removed from the chest has fantails embroidered on it. This shape is very similar to the waffle crisps they used to garnish ice cream in soda fountains. The woman is dead, her hopes unrealized. Even the state of her toenails and death become a sex joke [yes, the word "horny" had the same connotations and Stevens’ day as it does now]. The body but spent a good deal it's time generating heat is now cold and dumb. Such is the nature of the material pleasures -- fleeting. The lamp is no doubt a coroner's lamp. Death is the great equalizer, the "Emperor" of the phenomenological world -- the only constant.

Much of this reading is not original. I owe a great debt to Dr. Thomas R. Preston for a great deal of the cultural context I apply to the poem.