16. The Emperor of Ice Cream

This poem is open to many different interpretations, but I thought I would try and find an interpretation that relates best to Part Two of the reading. The poem is as stated below:

Call the roller of big cigars,

The muscular one, and bid him whip

In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.

Let the wenches dawdle in such dress

As they are used to wear, and let the boys

Bring flowers in last month's newspapers.

Let be finale of seem.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,

Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet

On which she embroidered three fantails once

And spread it so as to cover her face.
If her horny feet protrude, they come

To show how cold she is, and dumb.

Let the lamp affix its beam.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice cream.

By: Wallace Stevens

Before beginning to interpret this however, I had to give a definition to some of the words that I wasn't quite sure of. I chose the definitions that made the most sense to this novel. The following definitions are what I came up with and they are from dictionary.com:

1. whip - to move and go quickly or suddenly; dart

2. deal - a board of fir or pine

3. fantails - a breed of domestic pigeons having a rounded, fan-shaped tail

4. horny - hornlike as a result of hardening; callous

The image I have created in my mind after reading this is a woman who has died and is covered in a sheet that she has created and kept in her dresser. Let be finale as seem makes me think that this is her death. She is done and we must come to terms with her death. At the same time, I am also seeing a celebration of some sort taking place because there are flowers and cigars. As far as I know, cigars are smoked on special occasions such as weddings and births. They must be celebrating her life.

The hardest part I had interpreting this was the line that said, "the only emperor is the emperor of ice cream." What does that mean? How does ice cream relate to death? There are two things that I could come up with. The first was that the ice cream represents life itself. You have no power over death. You will melt away at some point. You can't freeze time, but whoever presides over you can decide how long you will stay alive; that would be the emperor. Ice cream can be frozen by the one who has it in their control. They have complete control over when the ice cream will melt. The second thing I came up with was simply that the ice cream represented celebration along with the cigars and flowers.

The hardest part about interpreting this poem was trying to relate it back to Part Two of the novel. At this point in the novel, people are beginning to go missing and people are dying without explanation. There is a fear that runs through the main characters. Susan, Ben, Mark and Matt are all feeling that they no longer have control over what is going on. They fear for their own safety and the safety of others.

It seems like Stephen King was putting more emphasis on the line of the poem that says, "the only emperor is the emperor of ice cream," rather than putting emphasis on the celebration of life. He is showing that the fear of not knowing when your time to go is overshadowing Susan, Ben, Mark and Matt. Their time to melt away could be tomorrow...