A text given by Smith and Dale, "'Sulwe Mbwakatizha Muzovu "'( " How Mr . Hare managed to scare Mr . Elephant " ) presents what might be called a " classical fabliau ", with animals talking like people, just as in the Fables of Aesop or the Brer Rabbit stories in the African Diaspora.
32.
In a letter written in 1933 Stevens selects " The Emperor of Ice Cream " as his favorite among his poems because it contains something of " the essential gaudiness of poetry . " ( Later, in 1939, he wrote a letter expressing fondness for " Fabliau of Florida " . ) The gaudiness of color images is striking in such poems as " Domination of Black " and " Disillusionment of Ten O'Clock " which also associate Stevens with the harmonium that is, a gaudy little organ-like calliope, suggesting Calliope, muse of poetry.
