Douglass Timed Writing
Twain Timed Writing
Research Essay & Website
ACE Paragraph
In the poem, "The Emperor of Ice-Cream," Wallace Stevens employs repetition and juxtaposing images to highlight the darkness of the modern period. The poem begins by setting up the scene for a big party, complete with "the roller of big cigars" and girls who "dawdle in such dress." By the description, and the use of the negative term "wenches" to describe women, combined with men bringing flowers in old newspapers, the mundane is encapsulated. In the following stanza, the theme of mortality is explored by the author revealing the setting is a funeral of a woman. The poem reads "To show how cold she is, and dumb," which emphasizes her state. These two scenes are weaved together by the repetition of the phrase "The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream." This phrase implies that there is no higher power or God, as the late women's loved ones are taking advantage of her funeral for their own desires. Desire, appetite and hunger are the only driving forces in the universe, according to this poem, and this highlights the sorrow and desperation of the modern era.
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