Preview

The Emperor of Ice Cream

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
462 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
The Emperor of Ice Cream
Usually, death is considered to be a solemn occurrence. It’s a situation that lends itself to respect, repose, remembrances, and most of all deference for the deceased. These emotions are always variant and dependent on the relation of one to the deceased. In the poem “The Emperor of Ice Cream” by Wallace Stevens, these sentiments that are so common and that are almost adhered to withought thought, are thrashed in the face of the reader. The general attitude toward death herewith seems that are of a passing flim flam, a complete opposite of that with which we all view death, regardless if we do it with thought or not.
The thought of the big muscular roller of cigars whipping up sensual delights in the kitchen brings to mind a lustful poem, the wenches dressed as they would any day, does not portray what we normally tend to wear when “paying respects” to the deceased. Normally we wear our best, darkly colored solemn dress, not our everyday wear. To cover the deceased in a linen from a raggedy dresser, as exemplified by the term the one “lacking three glass knobs” and to hell and high water if her “horny” feet should show; also is lacking in what is generally expressed to the deceased.
She is cold, she is dumb. Both statements to which “society” would cringe at if “heard” at a wake. And finally, let the lamp affix its beam, almost as if this were a freak show with a spotlight on the “freak” for all to pass in line and point and snicker at, as opposed to candles and or low lighting. The “Emperor of Ice Cream” indeed; this poem is a complete slap in the face to the term “paying respects to the deceased” and is self evident in its being the complete opposite of such in its perception of death. Personally I can see why it caused such uproar in the 1920’s when society was much more “devout”, if you will, as a whole. It was when everything was black or white, when you behaved properly, which usually meant like everyone else behaves.
The fact that in the 1920’s people

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The Sharpness of Death explores differing perspectives on death and its irrefutable link with life, encouraging contemporary readers to question their value of death and develop a judgement on the poem and Harwood’s poetry as a whole. Part one of the poem establishes the personas desire to bargain with death, through the demanding tone that is used to address it, “Leave me alone.” For the contemporary reader, this highlights the desperation to evade death, something many modern responders are able to identify with. As the poem continues, Harwood renders the philosophers attempts to undermine death through analysis, as meaningless. The use of the oxymoron “complex logic,” highlights the futility of this act, suggesting that death cannot be explained, only experienced. This challenges the value of attempting to understand death for the responder as even those considered the most intelligent living, cannot…

    • 1625 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Taylor further talks about the mourning dress and explains how funerals were a great platform to exhibit one’s rank and wealth in the society. Even the women in the family zealously participated in the display of their family’s status through their intricate mourning dresses (2010, p- 20). 3…

    • 1203 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the excerpt, the author begins his oration in an admirable tone. The author portrays his attitude towards his mother’s cremation as a positive outlook in life. With the excessive usage of diction, the author describes what lies beyond the oven door of the crematory oven as “wonderful”, while other people sought it as horrifying to see it. Shaw describes the oven being “No roaring draught. No flame. No fuel.”; rather, with the appearance of “cool, clean, sunny” of the coffin. Shaw evokes a sense of diction that is viewed with full of life. The cremation is depicted as a “beautiful fire” like “pentecostal tongue” suggests the mother as a spirit ascending from the coffin with the rebirth of life itself. By the presentation of diction use with the mother being rebirthed with attribution of new life, the author’s attitude can be best described in a blissful manner.…

    • 549 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    She is displayed as a bitter, hateful character who seeks revenge, shown with ‘not a day since then I haven’t wished him dead’ and ‘give me a male corpse for a long slow honeymoon’. This is almost contrasted with her loneliness and sexual frustration explored in the first stanza, with ‘some nights better, the lost body over me, my fluent tongue in it’s mouth in it’s ear then down till I suddenly bite awake.’…

    • 1243 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    In I Died for Beauty, Dickinson explores the values of ‘truth’ and ‘beauty’ as a barrier in one’s quest for a sense of belonging. The inter-textual reference to Romantic Poet John Keats "Ode on a Grecian Urn", in which ‘ beauty is truth, truth beauty’ symbolically connects the two values as one. Through this metaphorical patriotic linkage of the morals as “brethren” and “kinsmen”, Dickinson encapsulates her sense of connection these morals bring. However, the accumulation of gothic association to death in “died for beauty... tomb... who died for truth…” accentuates the extent to which these values segregate Dickinson from her society and even her own identity. As she “died for” beauty and truth her sacrifice and desperate yearning for companionship is clear, and is metaphorically achieved only in death, yet even in bereavement is still being separated by “adjoining room(s)”. Through gothic imagery in the line “moss had reached our lips” and covered her “name” Dickinson symbolizes the complete loss of her sense of belonging by attaining to these morals. By suggesting that in order to belong, one must…

    • 1392 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Best Essays

    “Everyman” is a metaphorical story that illustrates the value of life and death. The famous medieval play of the 20th century elucidates around the lifetime journey, the sins, family, and the day of reckoning. Death is perceived distinctively in various cultures and tends to impact an individual personally as compared to a group. The journey to death is associated with life’s morals, values, and experiences witnessed in life, but each person’s reactions to death are quite different. Following the brief overview of the “Everyman,” the essay discusses death in several cultures and how individuals treat death with support from scholars.…

    • 2147 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death is inevitable. No matter how much an individual clings to life hoping and wishing to escape death, death always follows. Yet, in the presence of those who cling to life, there are individuals who accept that death is a part of life. Those individuals realize that from the moment of birth death is inevitable. In light of these two polar responses to death I find it important to try to understand the concept of “good death.” For the purpose of this short essay I will not dive into whether death is good. For now I will only explore the fluidity of “good death” by highlighting specific attitudes that have endured over the past 150 years and offer personal suggests for why I think these attitudes have persisted.…

    • 762 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death is an odd thing, humans do not know what waits for them the moment their hearts stop beating, they do not know where they’ll end up going- but death is a common topic. Whether it be in movies or writing, death has made its impression on the world; especially on poet Emily Dickinson. Dickinson’s poems, “I heard a Fly buzz- when I died” and “Because I could not stop for Death” focus on a consistent theme of death and her own curiosity on what it might be like to die herself. Dickinson’s life and use of the archetypal device have a connection to helping fuel her dreary, death revolving, poetry.…

    • 511 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Facing Mortality

    • 2565 Words
    • 11 Pages

    In this paper I have been asked to compare and contrast literary works involving the topic of my choosing. For this paper I chose the topic of death. Death can be told in many different ways, and looked at the same. This paper is going to decide how you feel about death, is it a lonely long road that ends in sorrow, or a happy journey that ends at the heart of the soul? You decide as we take different literary works to determine which way you may feel.…

    • 2565 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death: Betjeman is open and even brutal in the physical descriptions in this poem of the effects of death.…

    • 741 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the depressed poem “Exposure”, Wilfred Owen through warlike phrases, diction, and imagery describes that death can mutate an individual's natural response to any situation permanently.…

    • 500 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Emily Dickinson Diction

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages

    There is a multitude of poems written with the theme of death, be it in a positive light or negative. Some poets write poems that depict Death as a spine-chilling inevitable end, others hold respect for this natural occurrence. In Emily Dickinson’s poem “Because I could not stop for Death”, diction and personification is utilized to demonstrate the speaker’s cordial friendship with Death.…

    • 429 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    What Is a Good Death?

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages

    "Death be not proud'. And death shall be no more,', comma, "Death thou shalt die.' 'Nothing but a breath, a comma, separates life from life everlasting. With the original punctuation restored, death is a comma. A pause. In this way, one learns something from the poem, wouldn't you say? (Wit).'" These are lines from the renowned play Wit, when Vivian Bearing, the main character, learns John Donne's Holy Sonnet 10, but misses the meaning of the sonnet and the main idea that her professor emphasizes. John Donne did not even write this Holy Sonnet until he himself was near to death from typhoid fever. It was not until Vivian experienced the dying process for herself that she truly grasped the meaning behind John Donne's sonnet. Similarly, I believe that a true understanding of death, or better yet, a ‘good death’ does not fully come until you are faced with the dying process yourself. Even though I am not facing the dying process, I have an obscure outline of what I think I would value towards the end of my own life at this point in my life, which I will discuss first. Secondly, I will discuss what those with more expertise believe about what a ‘good death’ is. Lastly, I will show the importance of defining a ‘good death’ when dealing with effectively caring for the dying. Even though I can only speculate about what I consider to be a ‘good death’, I argue that a ‘good death’ is the form of death that most people would choose for themselves (including the authors from class) which is important because defining a ‘good death’ is the first step in understanding what value at the end of life to improve palliative care for those who do have a say in how they are treated at the…

    • 309 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Death is a constant presence in life that can not be escaped and is experienced by everyone. Dylan Thomas’s “Do not go gentle into that good night” and Emily Dickinson’s “Because I could not stop for Death” and both deal with different perspectives of death. Thomas’s poem looks at death from an external perspective of watching a person die where Dickinson’s poem looks at death through the perspective of a person experiencing death. These perspectives on death show the acceptance of death and eternity and death and disparity of life ending.…

    • 653 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The poem discusses the funeral of a woman and how she is presented in her funeral as someone people would be more likely to romanticize than what she actually was, perhaps out of a misguided sign of respect. The other more hidden meaning behind the poem is the author's reaction to the women herself and how she is portrayed in almost a spiteful, angry way because of his anger over her wasting her life in gray dullness.…

    • 868 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics