Fire and Ice

Robert Frost:

• was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco
• He became interested in reading and writing poetry during his high school years in Lawrence, enrolled at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire in 1892
• Later, enrolled at Harvard University, though he never earned a formal degree.
• His first published poem, “My Butterfly,” appeared on November 8, 1894 in the New York newspaper 'The Independent'
• Frost served as a consultant in poetry to the Library of Congress from 1958–59.
• In 1962, he was presented the Congressional Gold Medal.
• died in Boston on January 29, 1963.

Explanation:

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.

• age-old debate about the two things out of which one will destroy the world.
• These two things are fire and ice.
• Some scientists believe that it is the fire that will be responsible for the destruction of the world.
• The other belief is that it is the ice that will destroy the world.
• Frost lost his daughter and son, the latter at the age of 4 and 2, respectively, the ice could also be a metaphor for the traumas that Frost had to deal with in his life.

From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire.

• the poet comes to his own interpretation of these two terms.
• It is the desire which makes people greedy, materialistic, and deceitful.
• It is the desire for power that led to the deadliest wars, and battles and cost an  loss of humans as well as other living things.
• Hence, for the poet, the fire of desire will destroy the world.

But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.

• if the world were to destroy twice ice would also have destroyed it.
• Ice, in the words of Frost, refers to coldness in the relationship.
• With the emergence of materialistic thoughts, emotions, and human warmness have vanished away.
• In the race of worldly things, people have forgotten other humans and have started loving material things.
• Thus for the poet, the hate which has emerged because of desire would also have destroyed the world if it had to perish twice.

Summary:

Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice” is a strong symbolic poem where the fire is used as the emotion of desire and ice, that of hatred. He has used the idea of two groups who have their own possible explanation for the end of the world. One is of the opinion that fire alone can destroy each and every possibility of life on Earth while the other thinks that if ice as a result of extremely low temperatures could cover the earth’s surface, it would lead to the end of the world. Both the components are compared with self-destructing human emotions: desire and hatred. The poet is original of the opinion that he has been very closely associated with the “fiery desires” and considers it capable of bringing human beings on the verge of destruction. Thus, he considers fire as more competent for destruction. But then he thinks that “icy hatred” is just as capable of ruining humans, though slowly and steadily. Therefore, if Earth was to end twice, ice would be just as good as fire. If a fire would lead to rapid destruction, ice would lead to silent damage. Similarly, if the fire is pure passion, ice is pure reason. Thus, the poem, very artistically, underpins the philosophy that we let our emotions rule us and if don’t control them they will surely bring us all on the verge of chaos. successcds