Gather Ye Ice-Cream While Ye May: An In Depth Analysis of Wallace Stevens' “The Emperor of Ice-Cream”

This stanzas opening “Now I’ve found a quilt I’d like to die under” is a small change in tone but it is not minor in scope. The slight change from a calm nostalgia to more exited nostalgia is very important resulting in a change of diction. The narrator begins to describe the quilt with phrases that contain allusions to her past like “the yellowbrown of Mama’s cheeks”. The change of tones impetus fuels these allusions which attribute to the complex meaning of the century quilt that family is the blanket of life which keeps one safe through the darkness(night). The immense amount of illusions continue on into the third stanza strengthening the complex meaning. Whilst being the longest paragraph the third paragraph is also a hive of hidden meanings with allusions to the future and of what’s to come of the quilt. The most essential part of this paragraph is the use of the word “dreams” and

Apart from that, the poem consists of a series of turns that reflect different parts of the speaker’s feelings and the experiences he had. The significance of these turns is made possible through the use of stanza breaks. For example, the first

metaphors are used to symbolize the turbulence in the house and how rapidly it spreads throughout the house. In line 4, “greasy stains spreading on the cloth”, the ‘greasy stains’ refer to schizophrenia and how it spreads through the family. In lines (4-6) “Certain doors were locked at night, feet stood for hours outside them…” this is a metaphor for paranoia. It could also show how family members would shut themselves off from the rest of the world. The use of diction sets up the tone of anger throughout the poem by using words such as: slammed, shouting, threats, cracking, broken and madhouse. (2) “It had begun with slamming doors..” the use of slamming shows how infuriated the family was and how they took their anger out of the house. (11) “...reconciliations, the sobbing that followed.” Reconciliations

Theodore Roethke’s poem, “My Papa’s Waltz” has spurred passionate academic debates among professors, scholars, and students; the imagery, context, and diction of the poem clearly supports the interpretation that Roethke writes “My Papa’s Waltz” reflecting on his relationship with his father. A relationship in which, notably, causes harm to the author. However, through all the nights Roethke spent in pain and in horror, his love for his father still exists. While many people believe that the author tells a lovely story of a fond memory with his father, it is not possible that the use of negative imagery and negative diction does not play a role in the story told. “My Papa’s Waltz” tells the story of a “small boy” who is abused by his

The poem dramatizes details using imagery regarding how the colonel suffers from severe post traumatic stress disorder. As a former colonel he has past events bothering him mentally. These events take on a life of their own through the speakers use of personification “The moon swung bare on its black cord over the house”(5-6). This statement shows how the speaker feels towards what’s inside the house and a sense of despair and loneliness in the colonel persona. There could also be a double meaning, explaining how the colonel interrogated somebody and then hung him with a black cord from the top of the house. The poem shows horrific imagery towards the reader “the broken bottles embedded in the walls around the house to scoop

Shel Silverstein’s poem, Peanut-Butter Sandwich, revolves around a king and his insatiatable greed for a peanut butter sandwich. Slowly, the king succumbs to his favorite food and his jaws become stuck from the thick peanut butter. The whole town is called and through many different attempts, finally manages to pull the king’s jaws apart. When initially searching for a poem to imitate, I immediately looked to Silverstein. He is very famous and creates jovial poems which easily bring smiles to readers everywhere. Silverstein’s use of rhymes, tone, and organization all lead to a poem that creates a sense of nostalgia in the reader, reminding them of happy thoughts of childhood. I chose to imitate Peanut-Butter Sandwich so I could reproduce those feelings in my audience.

“Those Winter Sundays” written by Robert Hayden, depicts the ungratefulness that a young boy has towards his hardworking father. Later in the poem, as he matures, he begins to realize everything his father has done for him, and his feelings suddenly change. Throughout the poem, Hayden uses numerous examples of imagery, personification, and foreshadowing to show how the speaker’s attitude regarding his father transforms from the perspective of a child to the perspective of an adult.

In this part, it is centered on the form and the structure of the poem. I’ve interpret the poem based on its style, sound and structure and the usage of semiotics in order to fully understand the poem. Just like in the 1st part, following the commands of God and as we have finished it and as the world modernized even more, we tend to disappear and fade away.

Because the poem is long, it won’t be quoted extensively here, but it is attached at the end of the paper for ease of reference. Instead, the paper will analyze the poetic elements in the work, stanza by stanza. First, because the poem is being read on-line, it’s not possible to say for certain that each stanza is a particular number of lines long. Each of several versions looks different on the screen; that is, there is no pattern to the number of lines in each stanza. However, the stanzas are more like paragraphs in a letter than

It starts off saying that once in a while on a nice day, go outside and enjoy the day. Breathe in the fresh air and feel the breeze in your hair. (Lines 3-4) The reader should take the time to feel the grass between their toes, smell the flowers, and watch the clouds. (Lines 6-7) Listen to the bees buzz, and to climb the trees. (Lines 9-10) Look out into the meadow and watch the deer play. (Lines 11-12) People should pick the flowers, watch the streams glisten and listen to the sound of the water splashing. (Lines 13-16) When you feel at peace inhale and lay on the ground. Let nature tranquilize you. (Lines

“That oppresses, like the Heft of Cathedral Tunes--.” It has a very heavy feeling derived from the word Heft as well as Cathedral Tunes. The Cathedral is considered sacred yet it is such as somber sound that it could easily affect a person’s mood. The use of paradoxes in the poem creates a sense of confusion about the true feelings about the revelation. “Heavenly Hurt” is both wonderful and horrible and suggests that the pain comes from the heavens. This suggestion is support in various situations throughout the poem. “Cathedral Tunes” and “Sent us of the Air” are the prime examples. It shows that this new realization may have been from a divine being therefore the reader is confused on it’s significance because it perhaps a type of gift. “Landscapes Listen Shadows—hold their breathe” is the personification used in the poem. This personification in the work shows that a divine being has arranged for this revelation to occur therefore, all of nature will halt to the being who has been selected to find this new piece of themselves. She also uses a bit of irony as well as parallel structure to set the scene in the poem. The revelation is brought out in the light of an wintery afternoon, this is the parallel yet it oppressive and dark which is ironic because the light brought with it such darkness.

The short stanzas containing powerful imagery overwhelm the readers forcing them to imagine the oppression that the speaker went through in

“The relationship between the energies of the inquiring mind that an intelligent reader brings to the poem and the poem’s refusal to yield a single comprehensive interpretation enacts vividly the everlasting intercourse between the human mind, with its instinct to organise and harmonise, and the baffling powers of the universe about it.”

Stevens makes this fact apparent from the beginning of the poem, when he notes not only “human revery” but also “the sexual myth” and the “poem of death” (1). Therefore, these defined formulations are only categories of a greater whole, which remains unmentioned in the poem. In deliberating on Stevens’s poems, we can come to understand this encompassing whole as the imagination, which impels an individual to make “eccentric propositions” about his or her life and fate (4-5, 10).

Here is the interpretation and analysis of the poem based on the sections that respect the grammar and meaning of its sentences: