Peter: This is a very American poem. Note that it begins with a portrait
of a brash American capitalist, the king of this or that elevated a notch
higher, sketched in a quick emblem, and ends with death. Hard to imagine
reading "the only emperor is the emperor of ice cream" any way
but ironically, as a critique of our putative national optimism, the sort
that continues to get us into idiotic wars. Along with Ploghing on
Sundays among my favorite of WS's short poems. If I had to name a
favorite of all, probably The Idea of Order at Key West.
Mark
At 11:48 AM 6/16/2008, Peter Riley wrote:
----------
From: Peter Riley <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 16:15:46 +0100
To: John Hall <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Wallace Stevens question
- From: John Hall <[log in to unmask]>
- Reply-To: John Hall <[log in to unmask]>
- Date: Mon, 16 Jun 2008 15:50:17 +0100
- To: [log in to unmask]
- Subject: Re: Wallace Stevens question
- Imperative then? Ontological imperative:
be!
- It's a great line.
- John
- Yes it is, but is the line that follows it a great line? I
first met it when I was about 14, and immediately thought "Why on
earth did he write that?" I don't think I have yet found out.
- That is to say, I've know at least since I was 14 that the emperor of
ice-cream is not the only emperor, and I don't see how anybody's funeral
is going to change that.
- By the way, anyone who has bought Faber's new Selected Poems of
Stevens with introduction by John Burnside might like to know (as was
pointed out recently on another list) that in it the poem "Not Ideas
about Things but the Thing Itself" is, after six lines, given the
ending of a completely different poem, "As at a theatre".
This means that the book was neither edited nor proof-read. Who
knows what other bloomers there might be in it. Such are the standards of
our great poetry publishers these days.
- PR
