Ice Cream Rules All

         The poem “Emperor Ice Cream” by Wallace Stevens, takes place in the funeral of a women. However, you will not know this until the second stanza because it is portrayed as a happy celebration. The theme of the poem is death. The narrator implies that people always look for explanations beyond what something really is, like death. In other words, we don’t let “be be” (line 7). One can gather that there is nothing more to life than humans seeking pleasure out of every opportunity. I will explain how Stevens uses formal elements like symbolism, imagery, rhyme and figurative language further reinforce the theme of the poem.

    In this poem the author uses symbolism to reinforce the theme by deglorifying death.  The speaker says that the only “high mighty” or “emperor” of humans is our desires, like eating ice cream. Ice cream in the poem symbolizes something pleasurable and fun, usually associated with children.  The author begins both stanzas with playful language and uses sexual riveting vocabulary until the last couplets. For instance, in the first stanza the poem uses words like “the muscular one,” “concupiscent curds,” and “wenches” which are all language that might distract a reader into sexual thoughts, from the serious theme of the poem: death(line 2-4). The speaker’s choices of words symbolize how easy it is to place the reader into a pleasurable state of mind, just by tossing sexual language at them. The refrains are like a wake up call when he hits you with the bare truth of life.  

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    Another way in which the author uses playful language other than using symbolism to reinforce the theme is his use of imagery. Often, when someone dies, like the ancient Egyptians who used to bury their dead with treasure which marked their belief in an afterlife, we pay their respects. The poem uses old newspapers and describes a dresser that is “lacking the three knobs” (line 10). This reinforces once again that the speaker does not believe in an afterlife or spirituality.  He is looking at the dead as what it really is: cold and dumb.  There is nothing ...

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