Understanding "The Emperor of ice Cream," Part 2

[@stevedelchamps5113]

I enjoyed your careful and articulate reading of this mysterious little poem of Stevens’s. Thanks!

[@aniananoel8300]

I love your view of the poem, and you explained it expertly. Although I always thought of the emperor of ice cream as death. The emperor (the person with power) of ice cream (ice cream being a reference to death, because when something is dead; it's cold like ice cream.) But I do see how it could mean being in control of your own happiness. You made me see the poem differently and it really helped.

[@SixMinuteScholar]

Ooh, I like your idea too!

[@BilliePorter-lq6nm]

Thanks for going over this poem in such an approachable way! I had read the article you mentioned in part one and was still a bit confused and found your videos shortly thereafter. I'm def subscribing. Thanks again!

[@Twolff100]

I am home schooling my 14 year old. You are such a help. I am so glad to have found six minute scholar.

[@SixMinuteScholar]

Wishing you well, and your young student!

[@pandaluna]

Also, I appreciate your line-by-line breakdown, particularly the Hamlet allusion which I never heard before.

[@philipcanevari7223]

Excellent presentation. You entertain more than one interpretation, and then decide on your most reasonable one. I; as one with some literary analysis experience (but not a published writer) don't see in part One or part Two of poem the sexual connotations (suggested but not adopted). . I first read the poem about 1963. Been one of my epic faves since. I still hang to the old tale of "The Emperor Has No Clothes!", and I think Stevens had this in mind. Death yes, pomposity no. Just being real. Another great poem I treasure - I think relates to "Emperor" and can't resist mentioning - is "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" by Randall Jarrell. Affix your beam on that gripper. Thank you.. .

[@SuperWave86]

Really enjoyed the analysis of the poem. Good job.

[@reshmia5791]

This is really....interesting way of explaining a poem....more over i enjoyed listening to your way of présenting.....it helped me a lot...

[@winniewang3846]

I have watched many of your videos. Your explanations are amazing!!! Thank you sooooo much!!!

[@sadkjuliwefuhwviergbvo]

Really like your work!!! You make very interesting and good understandable videos!

[@SixMinuteScholar]

Thanks!

[@abrilferla]

Hey Rebecca, just discovered your channel listening to Wordsworth. I have an exam tomorrow, so I have to study, but I will be coming back to your channel as soon as I get the chance! I love discussing literature too(; keep doing what you're doing.

[@liamodalaigh3201]

wonder full ! lesson. thank you

[@francescagatica2799]

Excellent analysis! I really like it, Rebecca. I also think that this poem deals with the "transcience" of life. As Irene put it, I also would relate this Steven's poem with Shelley's poem, Ozymandias.

[@dalalqueen6140]

I love you, you save me. Thank you! ❤️

[@Xekoroth1988]

It's interesting, I read this poem as a young teenager and later as an adult and my views on it shifted tremendously. Something that always stuck out to me was the contrast between the happening in the moment and eternal permanent ideas. I don't think the ice cream is in reference to Hamlet, I think the ice cream references an in the moment temporary enjoyment, i.e. kids eat ice cream as a treat and it's quickly consumed. I like to think of this poem as two scenes. One is in a ice cream parlor where a large burly man is preparing the days ice cream, the women dawdling being a reference to his nightlife [desires when not working], cigars giving two fold, one they require immense hand strength to wrap and a common pleasure of men during that day when they're enjoying the company of women of a more sultry class. His strength in his hands as he whips milk which will eventually become small temporary treats for kids to consume. The other scene is a funeral parlor where a cheap pine box with missing handles is opened, out is pulled old cheap fabric (the poem makes reference to its previous use) which is used to cover a womens face and most her body. Lastly and most importantly to me the poem references a lamp being turned on temporarily and shined on the body presumably to finish preparing her body for the funeral. Again, I don't look at the light in the proverbial since of shining some truth into the matter but rather in its temporary nature. A small lamp light is turned on for a few to complete the work, then turned off. Much like in the first verse where ice cream is given to children and lasts briefly as they quickly enjoy it. Contrasting this temporary existence with more permanent ideas such as death, which is presumably forever. I think the idea is explored philosphically a bit more in the line "let be be finale of seem" interpreted by me similarly to what you mention, let things appear to exist finally as they do right now. I think that line may allude to the fact that perhaps there is nothing more real, than what is happening at this very moment. It's certainly something to ponder in life about, could the truth in life be found equally in a moment of work on a body, or eating ice cream as found during the contemplation of your entire life? Does the permanence of death have more significance, than any other small moment in your life? It's a deep poem, one I've always enjoyed.

[@Xekoroth1988]

Also wanted to mention real quick the binary nature of a lamp as a parallel to being alive. One moment it's shining, one click later the light is gone. Much like life, one moment you are alive the next moment you are dead.

[@sylviapeck1681]

Beautiful commentary.

[@priyaraju4331]

Osm interpretation

[@tilly.]

You are amazing!

[@pandaluna]

I have a vivid memory of my AP English teacher yelling the word "horny" at the class to drive home the sexual connotations. The interpretation he advocated was that the emperor of ice cream was another way of saying "life goes on". He pointed out the significance of how no one waits for the wake to end before indulging in ice cream, how the life force, desire itself, forges ahead in spite of the solemnity of death. I think of this a lot in our internet age, where we are constantly bombarded with images and reminders of death as well as mundane pleasures and amusements (i.e. the evening news and cat memes.) I relate this a lot to the Childish Gambino video for his song "This is America" which everyone was talking about not that long ago.

[@LiteraryGladiators]

Good view as to the direction in which this poem moves. I am not sure if Wallace Stevens wants to play even further onto his originally intended message of sexual desire, but it is logical to think that "an emperor" could only be in control of "their world" for such a short period of time when you put it up against the backdrop of life. The "ice cream" comes off as happiness, thus only those that have a grasp of their happiness and their dreams remain powerful, per se. As a modernist, though, Stevens could be hinting elsewhere. -Josh

[@newhorizonsforfifty2833]

Has me thinking of trying to write an essay using a mixture of the formalist lens to show the current state of democracy in the world and in the United States.

[@nanditadas9941]

Thank you sooo much u hv helped me a lot

[@funkzilla01]

Thank you.

[@PeterLobo-]

Emperor here is time

[@trysometruth]

Yay! Rebecca's BACK!

[@JozRad]

Seize the day? Was reading Stephen King's book Salem's Lot. A writer looks down on a corpse and quotes Wallace Stevens poem, as he sees the feet.

[@Nappylelene]

Can you do the yellow wallpaper please

[@SixMinuteScholar]

Good idea! It's so depressing that I've been avoiding it . . . but I should do it!

[@tbdeinla8558]

i enjoyed the video :) but for me the emperor (we who are still life or still living earth) ice cream ( is a form of death or a place where people go if they die) i think for me the poem want to tell us if we die we couldn't bring who we are today like the emperor a royal one if he die he will still a normal person he will like the others. sohaha that is how i see the poem please tell me if maybe i may be wrong

[@SixMinuteScholar]

tb deinla Interesting! Good thinking!

[@tbdeinla8558]

am i wrong? haha its really hard for me to understand poems hehe

[@abrilferla]

New subscriber here(;

[@aroundworldnews]

1:25 in Yemen we cover our faces and we are still alive 😉😂

[@jimmyvictor13]

milk curdles at warmer temperature but ice cream can last a few months more. What if milk was to marriage as ice cream is to people having sex without being married or in love. And the female who is dead is the speaker's mom who had old marriage belifes, that seem to have died out.

[@stephanievictory3414]

I get it! Thanks!

[@ireneinfante3531]

How about relating to Ozymandias?

[@aroundworldnews]

just confine yourseld in controlling your own life 👍