The Emperor of Ice-Cream by Wallace Stevens: poem analysis & meaning

The Emperor of Ice-Cream the full poem, lines numbered

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

5As they are used to wear, and let the boys

Bring flowers in last month’s newspapers.

Let be be finale of seem.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

Take from the dresser of deal,

10Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet

On which she embroidered 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.

15Let the lamp affix its beam.

The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

The poem in 60 seconds

It sounds like a party, and it is also a wake. Stevens puts a kitchen where ice cream is being whipped next to a room where a dead woman lies under a sheet that may not cover her feet. Watch the refrain: it is the same line both times, but it means something different once you have seen the body.

The poem is a string of orders from an unnamed voice, apparently someone arranging a wake in a plain house, though the poem never uses that word. In the first stanza the voice says to call the roller of big cigars, the muscular one, and have him whip “concupiscent curds” in kitchen cups: he is to make ice cream. The young women may come in the everyday clothes they usually wear, and the boys may bring flowers wrapped in last month’s newspapers. Then comes a riddling command, “Let be be finale of seem,” and the refrain: the only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream. The second stanza moves to the dead woman. The voice says to take a sheet from a cheap wooden dresser that is missing its three glass knobs, the sheet on which she once embroidered fantails, and spread it to cover her face. If her calloused feet stick out, that only shows how cold and silent she is. Let the lamp fix its beam. The refrain returns word for word.

Speaker & situation

SpeakerAn unnamed voice that never says “I” and speaks almost entirely in commands. It sounds like someone taking charge of the arrangements after a death.

Addressed toUnnamed helpers in the house. Commands such as “Call” (line 1) and “Take” (line 9) are aimed at someone who is expected to obey, and no one answers.

OccasionA woman has died at home, and people are gathering, apparently for a wake. The poem never names her or says how she died.

SettingA modest house: a kitchen in stanza 1 and the room where the body lies in stanza 2. The dresser of deal (cheap pine or fir) with its missing knobs and the flowers wrapped in old newspapers suggest a poor household.

ToneBrisk, commanding and unsentimental. The voice expresses no grief, and readers disagree about whether that makes it harsh, darkly comic or simply honest.

The roller of big cigars

Cigar maker

A muscular man (line 2) called in to whip up the ice cream. His strength and trade bring a rough, bodily energy into the house.

The wenches and the boys

Young mourners

The young women may come in their usual clothes (lines 4 and 5), and the boys bring flowers in old newspapers (line 6). No one is asked to dress up for the occasion.

The dead woman

The deceased

Unnamed. She once embroidered fantails on a sheet (line 11), and now that sheet covers her face. Her feet may protrude, cold and “dumb,” meaning silent (lines 13 and 14).

Form & sound

FormLyric poem; two eight-line stanzas that end on the same refrain.

MeterNo regular meter. Line lengths vary, and the refrain (lines 8 and 16) runs to fourteen syllables, the longest line in each stanza, so it lands with extra weight.

Rhyme schemeMostly unrhymed until each stanza’s close. “Seem” (line 7) rhymes with “ice-cream” (line 8), and “beam” (line 15) rhymes with it again (line 16). Lines 13 and 14 also rhyme, “come” with “dumb,” so the second stanza tightens as it ends.

SoundLine 3 piles up hard k sounds: “kitchen cups concupiscent curds.” Line 7 is built from short, repeated words, “Let be be finale of seem,” which forces the reader to slow down and work out the grammar.

StructureStanza 1 is set among the living, in the kitchen and at the door. Stanza 2 is set beside the dead woman. The same refrain closes both, so the reader hears it first after the busy preparations and then after the cold body.

Line by line what each part says and does

1

Lines 1–6

Preparations in the kitchen

The voice calls for the muscular cigar roller to whip up ice cream in kitchen cups. The young women may come in their everyday clothes, and the boys may bring flowers wrapped in last month’s newspapers.

How it worksEverything is ordinary and a little rough: a cigar maker in the kitchen, girls who need not dress up, flowers in old paper. “Concupiscent” (full of desire or appetite) makes the ice cream sound like something craved, not just served.
2

Lines 7–8

Being over seeming

The voice commands, “Let be be finale of seem,” and declares that the only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

How it worksThe first “be” is a verb and the second works as a noun, as does “seem”: let what really is be the end of what only seems. The refrain then names the only ruler worth the title, and it is the ruler of something sweet, cold and quick to melt.
3

Lines 9–14

The sheet and the body

The voice orders someone to take from the cheap dresser, which is missing its three glass knobs, the sheet she once embroidered with fantails, and spread it over her face. If her horny feet stick out, they only show how cold and dumb she is.

How it worksThe details are plain and physical: the broken dresser, the handmade sheet, the calloused feet. The woman’s own needlework becomes her covering, and the feet that may show are a reminder that no sheet can hide the fact of death.
4

Lines 15–16

The lamp and the refrain

The voice says to let the lamp fix its beam. The refrain returns: the only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.

How it worksThe lamp is to shine steadily, not to soften the scene. Coming right after the body, the refrain now sounds less like a party slogan and more like a hard conclusion.

The turn

Lines 9

Lines 1 to 8 stay with the living: the cigar roller, the girls, the boys, the ice cream. Line 9 moves into the room where the dead woman lies, and the rest of the stanza stays with her body. The poem turns from appetite and bustle to stillness and cold, then repeats the refrain as if nothing had changed.

Literary devices with line numbers

Imperative mood

Most of the sentences are commands: “Call” in line 1, “Let” in lines 4, 5, 7 and 15, and “Take” in line 9. The voice treats a death as a set of jobs to be done, which gives the poem its brisk, unsentimental sound.

Refrain

Line 8 and line 16 are identical. The first time, the line follows the busy kitchen; the second time, it follows the dead woman’s feet. The words stay the same while the context changes what they mean.

Juxtaposition

The poem sets festivity beside a corpse: whipped curds, flowers and dawdling girls in lines 1 to 6, and a covered face and cold feet in lines 12 to 14. Ice cream is cold, and so is she (line 14), which links the treat and the body in an uneasy way.

Mixed diction

Stevens pairs fancy words with plain ones. “Concupiscent” sits beside “kitchen cups” and “curds” in line 3, “finale” sits in a line of one-syllable words in line 7, and “emperor” is joined to “ice-cream” in lines 8 and 16. The clash makes ordinary things sound grand and grand words sound deflated.

Wordplay

In line 7, “Let be be finale of seem,” the verbs “be” and “seem” are turned into nouns. The line asks that being, what really is, be the end of seeming, what only appears. It is the closest the poem comes to stating an idea outright.

Concrete detail

The dresser of deal lacking its three glass knobs (lines 9 and 10), the embroidered fantails (line 11) and the “horny feet” (line 13) are specific and unlovely. They keep the scene from turning into a pretty picture of death.

Themes in The Emperor of Ice-Cream

Being over seemingDeath and the appetites of the livingThe ordinary instead of the grandPleasure that does not last

Being over seeming

Line 7 asks that what really is be the end of what only seems. The poem refuses comforting appearances: no fine clothes, no grand ceremony, a lamp that shines on the body as it is.

Death and the appetites of the living

A woman lies dead, and the living are making ice cream. The poem does not scold them. It places the pleasure and the corpse side by side and lets the refrain claim that the pleasure is the only real authority left.

The ordinary instead of the grand

The only emperor in the poem is not a king or a god but the emperor of ice-cream. Grand titles and ceremonies give way to a kitchen, a cheap dresser and a homemade sheet.

Pleasure that does not last

Ice cream is sweet, cold and quick to melt. Many readers take the refrain as praise of present pleasure; others hear a darker note, since the “emperor” rules only for as long as the ice cream lasts.

Images and symbols

Ice cream

Appetite, pleasure and the present moment. It is also cold, which links it to the dead woman, and it melts, which makes its rule brief.

The embroidered sheet

The dead woman’s own handiwork, made when she was alive. Using it to cover her face turns a small piece of her life into her shroud.

The lamp

Plain, steady light. Letting it “affix its beam” (line 15) means looking at the scene as it really is, in keeping with line 7.

Tensions

Life vs. death. The first stanza is full of movement, muscle and appetite; the second is still, cold and silent. The refrain claims the living side wins, but it has to say so beside a body.

The ending

How The Emperor of Ice-Cream ends, explained

The poem ends with a small order and a repeated claim. “Let the lamp affix its beam” (line 15) asks for steady light on the room, not candles or shadows that might soften it. Then the refrain returns: “The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.” The words are exactly those of line 8, but they now come after the covered face and the cold, protruding feet. Readers take the ending in several ways. On one reading it is a celebration: death is final, the poem mentions no heaven, so the only authority worth honoring is the pleasure of the living moment, the ice cream in the kitchen. On a darker reading the line is grim irony. Ice cream is cold like the body and soon melts, so the only emperor rules a brief, sweet nothing. A third reading ties the ending to line 7: the poem strips away appearances, the fine clothes, the ceremony, the hidden body, and leaves only what is. Stevens himself later said in a letter that the poem was about being as distinguished from seeming. The refrain holds all of these at once. It is cheerful in sound and bleak in its setting.

“Call the roller of big cigars, / The muscular one, and bid him whip / In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.”

Lines 1–3. The opening command. A cigar roller in the kitchen and a fancy word for desire (“concupiscent”) turn making ice cream into something bodily and hungry.

“Let be be finale of seem.”

Line 7. The poem’s idea in six short words: let what is replace what only seems. “Be” and “seem” work here as nouns.

“If her horny feet protrude, they come / To show how cold she is, and dumb.”

Lines 13–14. The hardest image in the poem. The sheet may not hide everything, and the calloused feet show death plainly.

“The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.”

Lines 8 and 16. The refrain. After the kitchen it sounds like celebration; after the body it sounds like a blunt conclusion about what is left to rule.

Common misreadings

MythThe poem is just about a party with ice cream.

ActuallyThe second stanza (lines 9 to 14) describes a dead woman whose face is covered with a sheet and whose feet may stick out. The preparations in the first stanza are for gathering around her body.

Myth“Let be be finale of seem” is a misprint or nonsense.

ActuallyIt is grammatical, and it is what the 1923 book prints. “Be” and “seem” are used as nouns: let being, what really is, be the finale or end of seeming, what only appears.

MythThe poem simply says to eat, drink and be merry because life is short.

ActuallyThe refrain can be read that way, but the poem sets it beside a cold body (line 14) and a lamp that shows everything (line 15). Readers disagree about whether the ending celebrates pleasure, mocks it or simply accepts death without comfort.

AP practice a poetry prompt in the exam's style

In Wallace Stevens’s “The Emperor of Ice-Cream,” first published in 1922, a voice gives orders for a gathering around a woman who has died at home. Read the poem carefully, then write an essay that analyzes how Stevens uses literary elements and techniques to convey a complex perspective on death and the pleasures of the living.

What a strong response notices

The imperative verbs that drive both stanzas (“Call” in line 1, “Let” in lines 4, 5, 7 and 15, “Take” in line 9) and the unsentimental voice they create.
The clash of grand and ordinary diction in line 3 (“concupiscent curds”) and in the pairing of “emperor” with “ice-cream” (lines 8 and 16).
The wordplay of “Let be be finale of seem” in line 7 and the contrast between being and seeming.
The plain physical details of the dead woman’s room in lines 9 to 14: the dresser missing its knobs, the embroidered sheet, the “horny feet.”
How the refrain changes in meaning when it returns in line 16, after the body and the lamp’s beam.

Practice prompt written by StoryBites, not taken from a College Board exam. See the AP Literature free-response guide for how answers are scored.

Test yourself

1. Who is asked to whip the curds?

2. How do the boys bring their flowers?

3. What is the sheet from the dresser used for?

4. What does “concupiscent” suggest in line 3?

5. Which line appears twice in the poem?

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Answer

Explain it like I’m 12

A woman has died in her home, and people are coming over. The voice in the poem tells everyone what to do. A strong man should make ice cream, the girls can wear their normal clothes, and the boys can bring flowers wrapped in old newspaper. Then someone should cover the dead woman’s face with a sheet she once decorated herself. If her feet stick out, that just shows she is really gone. The poem keeps saying the only real emperor is the emperor of ice cream, which suggests that life and its pleasures are all the living have.

Compare & connect

Death, Be Not Proud

John Donne

Both poems face death directly. Donne’s sonnet answers death with faith in waking after it, while Stevens mentions no afterlife at all and turns to ice cream and a lamp.

To His Coy Mistress

Andrew Marvell

Marvell’s speaker also sets present pleasure against the grave. Stevens is less playful and more matter-of-fact, placing the body in the next room rather than in an imagined future.

Anecdote of the Jar

Wallace Stevens

Another poem from Harmonium in which one plain object is given a ruler’s power. The jar “took dominion everywhere”; here ice cream is the only emperor.

Discussion and essay prompts:

💬 Discussion questions

What is The Emperor of Ice-Cream about
What does Let be be finale of seem mean
Who is the emperor of ice-cream
How does The Emperor of Ice-Cream explore the theme of being over seeming?
How does The Emperor of Ice-Cream explore the theme of death and the appetites of the living?
What is the central conflict in The Emperor of Ice-Cream, and how does it shape the ending?

✎ Essay prompts

Analyze how Wallace Stevens develops the theme of being over seeming in The Emperor of Ice-Cream. Support your argument with specific evidence from the text.
Examine the significance of ice cream in The Emperor of Ice-Cream. What does it represent, and how does it deepen the work’s meaning?
How does Wallace Stevens use imperative mood to shape the reader’s experience of The Emperor of Ice-Cream?
Some readers assume that the poem is just about a party with ice cream. Argue for or against this interpretation, using evidence from the text.

Key questions students ask

What is The Emperor of Ice-Cream about
What does Let be be finale of seem mean
Who is the emperor of ice-cream
What does ice cream symbolize in The Emperor of Ice-Cream
What does concupiscent curds mean
Why is there a dead woman in The Emperor of Ice-Cream

Analysis is original StoryBites commentary. The poem is printed from Stevens’s first book, Harmonium (Alfred A. Knopf, 1923), checked line by line against the page images of that printing. It is in the public domain.