Analysis Of Fire And Ice

Fire and Ice: The End of Our World? In this poem, the rich symbolism seems to curtain over the meaning of what the speaker is expressing, in what seems to be an introspective musing. This seems to be his aim, as the speaker is pondering the world and its demise. The words the speaker uses could have many meanings when reading them from a metaphorical standpoint. The speaker starts out acknowledging two different theories on how the world will end. He essentially states that he agrees with the possibility of both theories coming to pass. Robert Frost’s poem, “Fire and Ice,” is a poem about exploring two possible causes of how humanity will destroy itself, either with fire (desire), or ice (hate), or maybe both. First, the meter in this poem is …show more content…
The speaker says,” From what I’ve tasted of desire / I hold with those who favor fire,” this statement leads us to believe he feels that, based upon his experiences with desire, a very strong emotion often equated with heat and fire, this type of “fire” would be able to “end,” or kill, the world. The speaker reveals that he believes ice could also “suffice”/ if the world had to “perish twice,” meaning that he holds fire and ice in the same regard as far as being damaging. The word “ice” is one that draws up thoughts of coldness, barren emptiness, or even thoughts of pain, when we think of the word in terms of someone’s behavior and how it makes one feel. The speaker’s clever word choice causes the reader to explore with him the possible causes of “destruction” of humanity. On BlogSpot, a review of the poem’s meaning agrees with this idea, stating, “Overall, then, the intention and meaning behind the poem is a basic desire on Frost’s part to warn, in his own manner, against what he sees as the two greatest problems facing humanity.” (BlogSpot) In conclusion, the poem holds a division of theories about the destruction of a whole