“The Emperor of Ice-Cream” Difficulty

“The Emperor of Ice-Cream” by Wallace Stevens

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 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 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.

At first, I was perplexed by reading the poem. For one, there were a bunch of words that I didn’t know (because people don’t use these words anymore!), like ‘concupiscent’, ‘wenches’, and ‘dawdle’. I also understood what each sentence was saying literally, but I didn’t know what the sentences meant. For example, who is the “emperor of ice-cream”? I had no idea, but I thought that this was the central idea of the poem, and I figured if I could understand who this was, then I would have a much easier time parsing the rest of the poem. 

I also noticed a few interesting places where Stevens uses alliteration/repetition, like ‘In kitchen cups concupiscent curds.’ Just reading this phrase out loud is pretty hard, so I think Stevens wants the reader to slow down at this point and contemplate what the ‘roller of big cigars’ and cups are.

Another use of repetition that I found was the phrase ‘Let be be finale of seem.’ I interpreted the first ‘be’ and the state of being and the second ‘be’ as a linking verb. I figured that ‘Let be be finale of seem’ means that being (something) comes after ‘seem’ing (what you see or perceive on the outside). 

The second pass, I figured out what ‘concupiscent’ means (lustful/sexual) and ‘wenches dawdle’ (girl waste time). The first stanza now seemed to mention a girl wasting time and boys bringing in flowers, marking an important occasion. Furthermore, ‘and bid him whip’ suggests saying goodbye, so perhaps the first stanza is talking about death. This would also tie in with then ‘let be be finale of seem’, and I’m starting to get an idea of what or who the emperor of ice cream may be—perhaps ice cream is death, and the emperor is the triumph over it.
Now, looking over the second stanza, the lines are starting to make more sense now. I originally interpreted ‘Take from the dresser of deal, / Lacking the three glass knobs, that sheet’ as perhaps putting ice cream in some glasses for different people to eat, but I think I now understand the deeper reference: the speaker is grabbing a sheet from the dresser (lacking the three glass knobs referencing a specific drawer/closet) and covering it over one’s dead body. ‘And spread it so as to cover her face. / If her horny feet protrude, they come / To show how cold she is, and dumb.’ This part also suggests a dead body; I’m not sure why Stevens would use the word ‘dumb’ here, though. Did this deceased person do something dumb in their lifetime? Is Stevens commenting on how the state of being dead is dumb?

Looking through the poem a few more times, I think I mostly understand the meaning of the poem and how it revolves around death. There are still a few lines that baffle me. I noticed the line ‘Let the lamp affix its beam.’ and finally realized that the beam (of light) was being affixed onto something, not that the lamp was being affixed onto a (metal) beam. Perhaps this is another reference to death, but I’m not sure what this means here. Affix its beam on what? Finally, I still am not quite sure what the deeper meaning of ‘the emperor of ice-cream’ is, the central idea of the poem.