The Emperor of Ice Cream Essay Questions

How does Stevens juxtapose life and death in this poem? How similar or different are the images he uses for each?

The starkest division between life and death is the split between the two stanzas, the first of which largely depicts life, and the second of which depicts death. At first impression, the sudden shift between the two, and lack of transition, leads the reader to question why and how the two stanzas are connected. On closer reading, however, the images in each section appear more closely linked as they mirror each other: the cold of death resonates with the cold of ice cream, and the motionless corpse forms a duality with the cigar man's muscles. Stevens reinforces this connection by ending both stanzas with the same declarative line. In this way, elements of life and death each appear sprinkled throughout the other, emphasizing one of the poem's main points, that death is an inevitable component of life.

How does the poem's whimsical tone impact its meaning?

The surprisingly playful tone of the poem begins with its title, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream," which seems at once childlike and imperial. The quaint, fun scene of the first stanza, of young people hanging around the ice cream maker, does not seem to fit with the funeral that we then learn is the reason for the gathering. Likewise, the last line's declaration that simple pleasures like ice cream rule over life seems to cheapen or make light of the woman's death. However, this juxtaposition reminds us that life is full of mundane desires and pleasures, and that joy can coexist with death. The poem suggests that forcing a somber, formal poetic tone onto life would do a disservice.

Who might the "emperor of ice-cream" be? What does his title tell us about the poem's view of life?

On a literal level, the emperor of ice cream could be the man who makes it in the first stanza, a neighborhood figure who symbolizes the fun, collective spirit of the people. As a symbol, however, he stands for the central role that everyday joys and attractions like ice cream play in human lives, helping the poem act as a sort of ode to the commonplace. He contrasts with other figures we might imagine to be "emperor" of human life or fate: most notably, death, which forms the poem's main point of contrast. To say that life is governed by ice cream might come off as cheap and gaudy, but it has the positive energy that makes life more attractive than death.

How does the formal construction of the poem reinforce its meaning? Think about the symmetry of the two stanzas, and the rhyming couplet that ends each one.

The two eight-line stanzas are both structured as a sequence of commands, ending with the same line. The heavy use of commands gives the reader a sense of being present in the scene in a functional capacity, having the power to direct certain aspects of the scene. They create a highly interactive experience of looking, and the penultimate lines of each stanza, two commands with "Let...," both urge the reader to reflect on the preceding stanza. The two "Let" commands, "Let be be finale of seem" and "Let the lamp affix its beam," both seem to urge the reader to focus their gaze on plain and simple reality. They then form a sort of cause-and-effect relation with the repeating final line: if you look at life plainly, then you will see that "the only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream." In a poem without much rhyme, the rare couplets create a sense of final declaration, leading the reader to ponder what it means for "the emperor of ice-cream" to be the ultimate truth of life.

When the dead woman’s body is covered with a sheet, some parts are hidden and others remain visible. Why is it important for us to see or not see certain things in the poem? How much of the second stanza’s funereal scene do you think the people in the kitchen see?

The act of trying, and failing, to completely cover the dead body essentially represents our futile attempts to hide the reality of death. Actually, this failure only occurs prospectively—"If her horny feet protrude..."—but the speaker sounds as if he already knows the sheet will not be long enough, and makes sure that we at least see the gnarled feet in our mind's eye. In not showing the woman's face—the conveyor of emotion, speech, and spirit—the poem reveals the more simple, crude flesh of the feet, a physical connection of the person to the earth and the eventual grave. Stevens emphasizes these basic, physical characteristics throughout the poem as a way to look at life and death in their purest forms: in stanza one, we primarily see the man, wenches, and boys through details of their bodies. It is crucial to the poem that the attendees in stanza one seem oblivious to the death scene in stanza two, as it gives the reader a privileged position of sight by which to contrast the two scenes and the few tangible details that Stevens allows us to see in each.