The Emperor of Ice-Cream

by Wallace Stevens

Treasury of 82 great poems by influential modernist includes famed title poem, plus "Anecdote of the Jar," "Peter Quince at the Clavier," "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird," many more. Also 18 uncollected poems.

Genres: Poetry, Classics

69 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Wallace Stevens is a rare example of a poet whose main output came at a fairly advanced age. His first major publication (four poems from a sequence entitled "Phases" in the November 1914 edition of Poetry Magazine) was written at the age of thirty-five, although as an undergraduate at Harvard, Stevens had written poetry and exchanged sonnets with George Santayana, with whom he was close through much of his life. Many of his canonical works were written well after he turned fifty. According to the literary critic Harold Bloom, who called Stevens the "best and most representative" American poet of the time, no Western writer since Sophocles has had such a late flowering of artistic genius.

Stevens attended Harvard as a non-degree special student, after which he moved to New York City and briefly worked as a journalist. He then attended New York Law School, graduating in 1903. On a trip back to Reading in 1904 Stevens met Elsie Viola Kachel; after a long courtship, he married her in 1909. In 1913, the young couple rented a New York City apartment from sculptor Adolph A. Weinman, who made a bust of Elsie.
A daughter, Holly, was born in 1924. She later edited her father's letters and a collection of his poems.

After working for several New York law firms from 1904 to 1907, he was hired on January 13, 1908 as a lawyer for the American Bonding Company. By 1914 he had become the vice-president of the New York Office of the Equitable Surety Company of St. Louis, Missouri. When this job was abolished as a result of mergers in 1916, he joined the home office of Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company and left New York City to live in Hartford, where he would remain for the rest of his life.

Reviews

[Lyn]

Emperor of Ice Cream and other Poems by Wallace Stevens is an accessible collection of 14 of Stevens’ most popular poems including the titular verse, “Peter Quince at the Clavier”, “The Idea of Order at Key West”, "A High-Toned Old Christian Woman," and “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird”.

Stevens’ work sounds eclectic and lyrical, spoken it is more declarative than introspective and this may be the source of much of his popularity.

Death is the mother of beauty

Stevens is described as a modernist poet, and much of the memorable quotes from the collection are expressive of a greater than personal observance, almost a universal pronouncement.

Poetry is the supreme fiction

Stevens can be satirical, addressing traditional notions of God and culture with a wink and nod while still making a serious statement about the world around him, never completely leaving a realistic approach, merely an oblique style.

August the most peaceful month

Stevens the poet uses repetition and colorful imagery to create a lyric landscape that works on multiple levels and that creates a dramatic tension between perceived and actual reality.

In the green water, clear and warm, Susanna lay

The poet can also use mystic / mythical imagery to convey a modern observation. Key West is a frequent source of inspiration and for setting.

Beauty is momentary in the mind – The fitful tracing of a portal;
But in the flesh it is immortal.

The ever hooded, tragic gestured sea
Was merely a place by which she walked to sing.

Ultimately, Stevens’ voice is that of a modern poet: an observant, meditative and spirited artist. This collection would be a very good introduction to his work.

[Jack Brown]

“Gray Room

  Although you sit in a room that is gray,

Except for the silver

Of the straw-paper,

And pick

At your pale white gown;

Or lift one of the green beads

Of your necklace,

To let it fall;

Or gaze at your green fan

Printed with the red branches of a red willow;

Or, with one finger,

Move the leaf in the bowl—

The leaf that has fallen from the branches of the forsythia

Beside you . . .

What is all this?

I know how furiously your heart is beating.”

[Steven Godin]

How long have I meditated, O Prince,
On sky and earth?
It comes to this,
That even the moon
Has exhausted its emotions.
What it is that I think of, truly?
The lines of blackberry bushes,
The design of leaves—
Neither sky nor earth
Express themselves before me . . .
Bossuet did not preach at the funerals
Of puppets.

— — —

Barque of phosphor
On the palmy beach,

Move outward into heaven,
Into the alabasters
And night blues.

Foam and cloud are one.
Sultry moon-monsters
Are dissolving.

Fill your black hull
With white moonlight.

There will never be an end
To this droning of the surf.

— — —

Pour the unhappiness out
From your too bitter heart,
Which grieving will not sweeten.

Poison grows in this dark.
It is in the water of tears
Its black blooms rise.

The magnificent cause of being—
The imagination, the one reality
In this imagined world—

Leaves you
With him for whom no phantasy moves,
And you are pierced by a death.

[Deb (Readerbuzz) Nance]

I took a long time to read this little 96-page collection of early poetry from master poet Wallace Stevens, and I'm glad I did. A couple of the poems in this book, including Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird, are among my old favorites. Some of the poems are likely to become new favorites. As I read, I felt like I was trying to read art; I mostly felt like I was reading along, admiring the beauty of the words, and the set of the phrases, and occasionally getting a flash of what that beauty was all about.

[Steve]

Hard work. Equal moments of confusion with glimpses of clarity.

[Yuri Silva]

simplesmente os poemas desse homem mudaram a minha vida.

[Graham]

Not any fault of the book: looks like poetry just ain’t for me.

[Flynn]

Can someone tell me what tf is going on in this one? Thank

[Owen Haines]

In my room, the world is beyond my understanding.
But when I walk I see that it consists of three or four hills and a cloud

[Michel Joia]

8.5/10
interessante demais.
Gostei mais dos poemas do começo da carreira, depois fica mais abstrato. Mas ainda assim, que poemas maravilhosos!!

[lou]

loved the themes of nature, humanity and religion

[🪲]

hate it when i stumble across a male poet expecting something different this time around only to be slapped with its misogyny yet again

[Giovanne]

"A poesia é o assunto do poema"

"O poema vivifica a vida, e nos permite
Por um momento ter a ideia primeira..."

[Feral Academic]

Mixed bag for me. I skipped all the poems that mentioned women after the third or fourth that felt like it was enraptured by the otherworldliness of the concept of Woman, and I think that kept me from getting too grumpy. There were a few I really liked - Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird and Snowman and the Tennessee jug one come to mind.

[Cooper Renner]

This is a Dover publication, presumably the poems old enough to be out of copyright. The intro says it's all the poems from periodicals published 1914-1922. So I presume it's a lot of overlap with Harmonium. Some of the most famous poems of 20th century America are here--13 Ways of Looking at a Blackbird; Sunday Morning; The Emperor of Ice Cream--as well as some of the less well-known. Often quite delightful, occasionally silly.

[violetderey]

I didn't study Poetics, thus I won't attempt to write a studious, erudite review of any of the poetry I read. And I love reading poetry. And love reciting it to a room empty of humans but adorned with several dozing cats. I like Stevens' poetry - the imagery and rhythms affect and inspire me. I know that I will return to this and continue my enjoyment by re-reading his poems and I certainly recommend this collection.

[Sameen Shakya]

The Emperor of Ice-Cream and Other Poems by Wallace Stevens is a perfect showcase into why he is a wonderful and fiercely talented poems.

Stevens' poems speak a language beyond the English that he writes in. He truly understood that poetry speaks in words that are felt rather than read.

Reading this collection, you understand that perfectly. I know I did.

[Todd]

Wallace Stevens is a Poetry-god!

[Risa]

The Emperor of Ice-Cream and Other Poems by Wallace Stevens (2005)

[Endira77]

difficult to interpret during AP English in 12th grade.

[Teri Orthwein]

Great

like his Sunday morning poem, it was worth the read, I loved the poem from beginning to end
Excellent read

[Dr Zorlak]

Coming soon....

[Marwa Mohammad]

"The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream"
[Stevens]