Fire and Ice by Robert Frost

Introduction

The poem “Fire and Ice” is one of Robert Frost's simplest poems. Robert Frost is regarded as very literal person. He once said, "Do not press the poem too hard. The real meaning is the most obvious meaning" (Hansen, 2000, p. 27). In Robert Frost's poem “Fire and Ice”, he compares two destructive forces, which is the fire, and ice to describe the way the world will end. Frost believes that the world will end in fire. He uses his knowledge of desire to make that prediction. On the contrary, he says that if the world was to end twice, the destruction ice is also great, and would suffice. Reviews of this poem have been mainly positive. The poem was featured in his Pulitzer Prize winning volume of poems, New Hampshire. “Fire and Ice” differs from the other three poems, because of its blatant reference to the end of the world.

Discussion

The poet expresses the two ideas of the end of the world, by fire or ice, in the first two lines of the poem. He represents the fire as the symbol of desire. This comparison suggests that Frost views desire as something that would consume and destroys. However, in the next stanza, Frost compares ice to hate. This comparison relates to the reader as something that causes people to be rigid and cold. In addition, ice is capable to compact things and causes them to crack and break. The last lines of the poems affirm that the two elements are equal. Fire or passion, consumes and destroys quickly. While ice or hatred destroys more slowly.

The two elements fire and ice are in a never-ending conflict with each other. Fire and ice will slowly destroy each other but only with their own demise. This poem is meant to show that perfection can never be obtained. Fire, which is passion and kindness, can be seen as the civil rights movement, and ice, or hatred, can be seen as the man who killed Martin Luther King Junior. While it is awful that such a great man was murdered, his legacy and accomplishments still live on. We can now see that while we would like the best of all possible situations, we can still settle for the middle and be better off than before. This is what I believe Robert Frost wanted us to get from his poem “Fire and Ice”. He wished we would take what he had to say and imply it to the daily lives (Hansen,

p. 27).

The initial thought of fire and ice was the passion and desire that two people have for and each other, and the ice referring to the bitter and, hate filled ending of a relationship. However, Frost begins the poem with “Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice,” (Frost, p. 87) I believe he is using the fire and ice as a metaphor to the end of the world as the Bible tells ...