The Emperor of Ice-Cream Themes
Versions of Reality
"Seems," madam? Nay, it is; I know not "seems."Yes, this is a quote from Hamlet, but we know that Wallace Stevens was barking up a similar tree in "The Emperor of Ice-Cream." Yup—the conflict of...
Death
This one is pretty clear. "The Emperor of Ice-Cream" takes place at a wake so we know that Stevens is working with questions of life and death. In the case of this poem, death represents a kind of...
Power
This is a juicy one, not just because it's nestled in a bunch of delicious language in "The Emperor of Ice-Cream," but also because Stevens puts a different spin on the theme of power. Sure we see...