The Emperor of Ice Cream
Wallace Stevens started his serious poetic career in 1914. His poetry in general is an exploration of the interrelationship between mind and nature, art and life, metaphor and truth. He mainyains that our knowledge of reality is often blurred by our belief in religion or traditional nations. He is called the gifted amateur.
The poem "The Emperor of Ice Cream" is one of the most puzzling poems written in this country. In consists of two stanzas of eight lines each. The first stanza describes 'active life' and the 'cold death'.
In the first stanza poet describes the lively scenes of ohysical vitality and sensuous indulgence. "Call the roller of big cigars" is an impressive beginning words like 'cigars', 'kitchen cups', 'conscupiscent' and 'whipping' in the first stanza refer to the sensuality of our age where muscular man and bold and shamelers women in provocation drews are considered popular. In such a world 'the emperor of ice cream' is the only emperor. This title signifies that the business man who make pershible things which tempt and please for a short time are the richest and the most powerful once today.
The second stanza unfolds the image of a dead women against the background of her impoverished circumstance. The dead women's wordrobe is made of cheap wood and it does not have evfen the knobs. The embroidered sheet of hers is inadequate to cover her dead body . Her feet remain uncovered annoucing her deplorable poverty and wretchness. Stevens contrasts life and death, wealth and poverty and sexual pleasures and cold death in this poem.
In one of his poem Stevens states thet poetry should great the unreal out of the real. Hence icecream is a symbol of reality which very soon transforms into unreality. The iceceram which tempts people in a frozen state melts away soon, but people's desire for it exploit. Similiar pleasure is as short lived as the icecream. However people are crazy for these momentary pleasure without realising the meanings and values of simple and spiritual life.
Critics have comeout with different explanations on this poem icecream is a metaphor denoting pleasures of the senses. The rich businessman who sells things like this is the emperor of our world. It is he who dictates policies to the amn in power and the people who are ruled by carnel desires have no concern for the poor. Indeed the poem is a harsh criticism on our society.
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