Robert Frost’s Fire and Ice

994 Words2 Pages

Robert Frost’s Fire and Ice

Fire and Ice is a popular poem written in 1923 by Robert Frost. It is

a very well known poem and is used in many high schools and colleges

today. Many students along with various critics read this poem as

Frost’s idea as to how the world is going to end. People also take

this in a Biblical sense, because the passage that God states the next

time he destroys the world, it will be in fire. He blatantly states in

the first lines, “Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in

ice”, which leads many critics to believe the simplicity of this poem

was to be taken as simple and to the point. However, the poem was

written in the roaring twenties, which is why I believe Frost had a

deeper meaning attached than how the world was going to end. Opposing

most critics with their view of this idea, I believe Robert Frost’s

“Fire and Ice” is about love. Fire being the love itself along with

passion, ice is the lack of love, rather than a view on the end of the

world.

Katherine Kearns states that although you have to make a decision

between the language, it still seems as if Frost is trying to allude

to the end of the world (Cambridge University). Frost often writes in

a very simply form, which is why critics are constantly led to believe

Frost had no double meaning out of the poem. The form of ‘Fire and

Ice’ is again, simple in the writing, leaving it easy to see the

surface meaning and not look any deeper. The form and simple rhyme

scheme do not give readers the idea that the meaning would be so

philosophical.

Through a deeper reading of the poem, I think Frost is trying to

discover the distinction between love and hate through symbolism. Fire

is love or burning desire. The ice symb...

... middle of paper ...

...rost was talking about love. In some sense,

everyone has felt the effects of a burning love or lack of love, taken

over by the feeling of coldness. Digging for a deeper meaning of the

poem, it is evident Frost was not only talking about the end of the

world, but also the end of a person. The effects of love and hate are

enough to put an end to a person, as are the effects of fire and ice

to put an end to the world.

Works Cited

Kearns, Katherine, “Fire and Ice”. On Fire and Ice. 1994. 17

September 2005.

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/

Pobojewski, Sally. “This Is the Way the World Ends.” LSAmagazine 23.1

(Fall 1999): 28-29.

Sangiorgio, Yvette. “Fire and Ice” Fire and Ice- Robert Frost. 12 May

2001. 17 September 2005. http://www.cs.rice.edu/

Serio, John N. “Fire and Ice”. On Fire and Ice. 1994. 17 September

2005.

http://www.english.uiuc.edu/

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