Category: Fire and Ice

One of the greatest comparisons to poetry would be considered music. Music is a different form of poetry being in motion. Poetry is an interpreted text since it has many meanings to different readers. Likewise, music has the same power on listeners. These artistic mediums provide an audience with a way to perceive ideas in different ways. Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” project similar meaning as Pearl Jam’s “Black.” Both the poem and song share similarities such as theme, irony, and symbolism.

Pearl Jam’s song “Black” was written in 1991 by Eddie Vedder, the vocalist of Pearl Jam. This song is usually perceived as someone losing their hope. It seems that the singer of the song has lost some sort of hope or true love. Life is usually perceived as a balance between good and bad, too much of good or bad can end up detrimental in the end. Vedder’s song focuses on how true love or hope can slip away and never be regained. The singer of the song is tattooed in the black when he loses everything desired. In other words, his world flipped upside down when he lost all that made his life bright. Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice” reflects on the equilibrium of desire and hatred in the world and how it can end the world. Like “Black,” Frost projects on how the world “will end in fire…(or) ice” (1-2). Fire is representative of love, passion, and desire. However, ice is representative of cruelty, loneliness, and death. When one cannot balance life’s good and bad, they tend to ruin their own life. For instance, loving someone too much could lead to issues when one decides to leave the relationship. This is also a clear idea in Vedder’s song as the singer fails to cope with their loss of love. The main theme that life is a struggle to balance and ends in havoc is similar to love not lasting forever. Vedder believes that love will survive with someone else while the cycle can continue for other people. Frost believes that enjoying too much of that love would lead to chaos. A fire can burn, ice can freeze, and finding the in-between is a challenge.

Within “Black” and “Fire and Ice,” irony is prevalent in expression of the works. While there aren’t necessarily any ironic features based on the lyrics of “Black,” the implications of the theme are considered ironic. This is simply because the singer believes that someone else will have a better relationship with the lost partner. However, one will always lose a partner in the end of a relationship, whether it is death or separation. Frost says that “(ice) would suffice” (10) when compared to having too much fire. Even when life comes to an end because of too much desire, having a life full of coldness and emptiness would have ended the same way. The singer in “Black” believe that someone will be better off than him in the end. Ironically, life will end the same way for the singer according to how Frost views the situation in his poem.

Symbolism for “Black” and “Fire and Ice” lies within the names of the song and poem. Vedder intended “Black” to symbolize the power of darkness in a lack of brightness. Black represents the emptiness that is left behind when a light goes away. Obviously, a romantic partner can bring joy and light into life. Yet, once that relationship takes a turn for worse, the light can easily leave the darkness behind. Black is what is left behind when the joy of brightness leaves from its visit. This brightness may visit someone else’s darkness for a stint of time and repeat the cycle. Clearly, there is an imbalance of light and dark similar with fire and ice. With too much light, there would be too much desire. With too much darkness, there would be too much emptiness. Frost intended for fire to represent “desire… I hold with those who favor fire” (4-5). Frost may feel that fire would end the world unlike Vedder believing that love would save his own world. Moreover, Frost intended for ice to be worthy to hate. Hate and black are similar since they both symbolize darkness and unhappiness. Essentially, symbolism is similar with both the poem and the song because both pieces argue over the power of desire and loneliness.

The beauty of music is that it is poetry in motion of sound. Music can be similar to pieces of poetry in the form of elements or traits. Eddie Vedder’s “Black” and Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” consistently share the value of relationships in life. Both forms of art depict this shared idea through their theme, irony, and symbolism. Vedder’s song is focused on how crucial a relationship is to keeping life happy and meaningful. Without light, there is only black darkness. On the other hand, Frost feels that there is no true balance to a relationship. There can only be too much or too little. Rarely is there ever an in-between with balancing life and a relationship. Without the use of poetry or music, multiple outlooks on the idea would be hard to imagine.

Literature, from its first written records, has examined the end of the world. Most mythologies of the world have stories explaining the origin of the world and speculating on its destruction. In his poem “Fire and Ice,” Robert Frost presents a view of the end of the world. Throughout the poem, the narrator seemingly ponders the world’s end and wonders what form the apocalypse will take, fire or ice. However, the poem is not merely a contemplation of the end of the physical world. In the poem, fire symbolizes passion and ice symbolizes hatred, both of which prove destructive to the world. “Fire and Ice,” through its use of antithetical devices, constructs a warning of the annihilating power of both passion and hatred while also developing a singularly pessimistic view of the world.

The poem’s first antithetical structure is imagery. In the first line, the speaker ponders whether “the world will end in fire.” In the second line, the image of fire is contrasted with that of ice. Obviously, both of these are Aristotelian opposites. Fire melts ice, and ice squelches fire. However, the speaker is not concerned with the physical world. He equates the fire in the first line with “desire”. Additionally, he compares ice with “hate”. Thus, the speaker uses the idea of a physical apocalypse as a springboard to examine his beliefs on the apocalypse. For the speaker, the world will meet a physical end, but the apocalypse seems to be the result of human weakness. In most apocalyptic scenarios, the world ends spontaneously, without emotion. By relating the physical images of fire and ice with desire and hate, the speaker indicates that human emotion, and consequently action, will cause the world to end.

The poem’s second antithetical structure is its rhyme. Strengthening the connection between the contrasting images of fire and ice, the poem rhymes “fire” and “desire”. The speaker is equating fire with passion and associating both with destruction. Thus, passion is not a positive emotion evoking love and lust but a paroxysm of hate. Additionally, another opposing rhyme is the use of “hate” and “great”. In most cases, the emotion of hate and its consequences are not positive. The speaker seems to be using great in its sense of large or all-encompassing. Thus, in the speaker’s pessimistic view, the apocalypse seems inevitable and comprehensive. There is a come-what-may attitude that the speaker exhibits. In the rhyme scheme, the destructive images of fire and ice are “great,” “hate,” “twice,” and “suffice”. The antithetical rhymes indicate that the world will end but that it will be unavoidable, “twice,” will be complete and fully destructive, “suffice,” and will be warranted, “great”.

The poem’s third antithetical structure is its use of juxtaposition. Multiple words within the poem present contrasting ideas. In line 4, the words “favor” and “fire” are juxtaposed. Fire, with its destructive nature, does not indicate favor. A favor is typically desired and pleasant. Also, a favor is freely given. If fire is to be the end of the world, the juxtaposition of the words favor and fire further indicate the pessimistic view of the speaker. The favor is the destruction of the world and the elimination of the passion and hate that truly tears the world apart. In line 5, the speaker juxtaposes “perish” with “twice”. The speaker is sinking further into depression and pessimism. The contemplation of death is a depressing subject, and by juxtaposing “perish” with “twice,” the speaker indicates that he is not only pondering death but that it also is constant.

The last antithesis in the poem is implied rather than implicit. The poem indicates a juxtaposition of the ego and society. In its opening lines, the speaker refers to “some” who predict the end of the world. But, this reference to the many quickly turns to the “I”. The speaker does not appear to care what others believe about the end of the world. Also, the most dominant letter in the poem is “i.” The letter occurs 21 times in 9 short lines. This prevalence of the letter indicates that the speaker is obsessed with himself and his interpretation. Additionally, by tackling the idea of the apocalypse, the speaker is putting himself in a position of self against the whole. What is most pessimistic about his view is that he does not appear to care about the other people that will die or even how they will die, be it fire or ice.

Through its use of antithesis, this poem develops a pessimistic view of the world and its fate. Positive words such as “desire” and “great” become twisted by the use of rhyme and juxtaposition. Whereas desire usually indicates lust, ambition, and craving, in this poem it is a longing for the end of the world. Overall, while the speaker appears to abhor the passionate hate that can destroy the world, he also appears to be fatalistic and even desiring of the end.

Fire and Ice is one of Robert Frost’s best-known poems. It metaphorically represents relationships between people, the struggle between the two extremums of human emotions, and its ability to bring the end of the world. The poem meticulously combines formal conciseness and conceptual depth. Thus, Fire and Ice is a remarkable example of the author’s skill to render a profound meaning using a minimum amount of linguistic tools.

The poem is composed of a nine-line stanza with irregular meter and rhyme pattern. The first two lines immediately establish a conflict between fire and ice as two extreme poles of the author’s worldview. Each of these elements is capable of bringing the world to an end: “Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice”. The narrator emphasizes the fundamental opposition between fire and ice through the use of anaphora, that is, the repetition of the phrase “Some say” at the beginning of each of two lines. This conceptual juxtaposition imposes the tone for the rest of the poem and has a decisive role in its metric framework.

In lines 3 and 4, the narrator compares fire to a human passion towards someone or something. The author suggests that one’s strong desires can have a destructive capacity. However, the speaker further introduces another powerful agent. In the last three lines, ice represents human hatred and cruelty. Indeed, cold reasoning also may be a disruptive force with similarly devastating outcomes for the world. Hence, the poem relies on the stylistic device of personification, which implies the endowment of inanimate objects with human traits. In such a way, Fire and Ice provides a vivid and compelling representation of abstract notions.

It is also necessary to observe that the poem’s tone is seemingly casual and relaxed. However, it discusses the serious and fundamental issues of human relationships and world order. This intention is evident in lines 5 and 6: “But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate”. The narrator hints that the world’s demise is inevitable, that he is ready to face it more than once. The speaker also declares that he has already experienced the ugly side of human nature. In such a manner, the poem ensures a more profound effect on its audience. The author deliberately applies a careless tone to attract the reader’s attention to this discrepancy between the form and the content.

Furthermore, the line breaks in Fire and Ice are not accidental and convey a deep meaning. As one can easily observe, the break between the first two lines demonstrates the irreconcilable antagonism between fire and ice. Indeed, these two forces cannot exist within a single space, eventually breaking the poem into pieces. This graphic rupture symbolizes the world’s breakdown as a result of the devastating struggle of human emotions.

The line breaks are also significant for the poem’s conclusion. The last two lines are the shortest ones, consisting only of three words each. This splintered architecture provides the extreme conciseness of the poem’s ending and demonstrates the speaker’s pessimistic prognosis. In other words, the last lines symbolically depict the end of the world, where everything perishes in the struggle of human ambition and hatred.

Thus, Robert Frost’s poem vividly represents human relationships and their destructive potential. The central images of fire and ice symbolize the powerful emotions of passion and hate, and the speaker emphasizes that both of them are equally dangerous and disruptive for the world around us. The narrator admonishes thoughtless obedience to one’s inherent ambitions and aspirations, since it may have tragic consequences for humanity. The formal elements in Fire and Ice effectively contribute to rendering the profound and symbolic meaning of the poem. Hence, the surface means effectively working in tandem with its thoughtful content and ensuring the author’s strong message to the audience.

How do you picture the end of the world?! A daunting question that could be answered with numerous outcomes. American poet, Robert Frost in his work has provided his own perspective to answer such a question. Born on the 26th day of March in the year 1874, Robert Frost wrote Fire and Ice in the year 1920. It did not get published till 3 years later in 1923. That means the poem was written when Robert Frost was 46 and it did not get published until he was 49 years of age. The poem is written in a casual tone that is easy to read and understand. This writing was also inspired by a passage in Canto 32 of Dante’s Inferno. The central idea of this poem focuses around the hypothetical end of the world, with the speaker asserting that it will be destroyed either by fire or by ice. By analyzing the poem, “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost and his uses of alliteration, rhetoric, and imagery, one can develop their own interpretations as to how the world could end.

For instance, we can focus Frost’s use of the literary device, alliteration. Alliteration is a literary device that repeats a speech sound in a sequence of words that are close to each other. Alliteration typically uses consonant sounds at the beginning of a word to give stress to its syllable. For example, lines 1 and 2: These two lines have a parallel structure, beginning with ‘Some say.’ This phrase is an example of alliteration. Fire and ice, as mentioned, are symbols. Specifically, they represent emotions like ‘desire’ and ‘hate.’ However, there’s no reason to think that these are all that fire and ice represent. Desire and hate are merely examples that fall in a broader category. Furthermore, in line 4 Frost uses the words, ‘favor fire,’ another example of alliteration. Both words begin with the same letter and add to Frost’s use of this literary device.

In addition, another device Frost uses well is rhetoric work. Rhetoric is the art of using language to persuade, motivate, or inform an audience via writing or speech. Rhetoric in the poem is used to convey the meaning of the poem. The first two lines of the poem serve as examples of this. Frost uses the phrases, ‘Some say the world will end in ‘fire’, and ‘Some say in ice.’ It is not clear whom the lines refer to by the words ‘some’. By using the term “some” this can draw the reader to the rhetorical aspect of the poem itself. It is not definite which persons are being referred to either. In continuation, the third, fourth and sixth lines of the poem reveal the personal opinions or views of the writer about the subject in question. The first-person speaker is being revealed as he is keen to let the reader in on his thoughts.

Moreover, a final technique utilized by Frost was imagery. Imagery means to use figurative language to represent objects, actions, and ideas in such a way that it appeals to our physical senses. Usually it is thought that imagery makes use of particular words that create visual representation of ideas in our minds. “fire” and “ice” in this context have been used as imagery. Imagery is used to appeal to our senses as it is based on actual things. Frost uses these symbols of imagery to imply that fire stands for desire or passion and ice for hate or reason, and they are the two probable ways that will cause the end of the world individually or working together.

Overall, through the uses of alliteration, rhetoric, and imagery, Robert Frost has been able to show us how the world will end consequently because of varying reasonings or thoughts. One can gain insight into the man simply by reading this poem alone. Frost skillfully explained his complex thoughts in such a casual and simple manner. Such mannerisms made it obvious how easy it was for Robert Frost to pen out his creativity into words that stay locked inside your head. The age-old question of whether the world will end in fire or in ice is brought before us. In similarity, to another age-old question: whether it would be preferable to freeze to death or burn to death. The speaker determines that either option would achieve its purpose sufficiently well. Ultimately, we are the only ones who can choose our own fate and how our actions will affect that outcome.

Piano keys

I sit on the stool,

stare at the piano keys,

so many yet so little,

but all they remind me of

is the guns

and those screams

unwelcomed but ringing as I

press on the piano keys

and they pull me

beneath the depths of water,

am I supposed to see different

colours underwater?

Because all I remember

is light and darkness

merged into one,

they were never meant to be.

My poem conveys the physical assertive power the “White” race had over the “Black” race. Like Robert Frost’s Fire and Ice, it reflects the intense aspects of humanity, when violence in either physical or emotional form is utilised. Robert Frost used fire and ice to symbolise the different extremities of human emotions; fire connotes heat, passion and anger, whereas ice connotes cold, and hate, and the imagery of emotions is created by connotations of “fire,” and “ice”. The use of enjambment especially in Lines 6-9 suggests the idea of inevitability, by reinforcing and hurrying the message of the poem: nothing gets in the way of extreme emotions. Similarly, the vocabulary used in his poem, “perish,” “destruction,” emphasises the great degree of negative power human emotions have. In my poem, the “piano keys” symbolise the Black and White race, “so many yet so little” (there are more white keys than black keys in a piano) in Line 3 expressing the magnitude of power the Whites had over the Blacks. Imagery is shown in “pull me beneath the depths of water” where the “pulling” water signifies the great power the Whites had. “Light and darkness,” connotes the two races and their differences. Lines 14-16, state how “light and darkness” are “merged into one, enjambment no longer being used in the last line to emphasise the significance of the next statement, “they were never meant to be,”. This overall endorses the fact that even though Blacks Whites occupied the same world, they could never live harmoniously together.

Breaking that wall

Its gaze was fire, hot like burning suns,

that fiery passion smouldering with heat

and mounting pressure surging through its core,

it feels its wounds then slumping with defeat

from desperation coursing through its veins,

the beast within still raging through the walls,

the red pulsating, livid like the flames,

the anger screaming hate to end it all.

Bloody murder! They could never see

the truth – the bitter truth concealed inside,

that tomb of secrets taken to the grave,

for hell burns over when you’re forced to hide

Inside, too deep inside the cave of truth,

still throbbing from expulsion overload,

and the chilly choking chains of silence but

silence is broken, breaking the abode.

My poem conveys the power of emotions and how suppressing them or bottling feelings has consequences. Like Robert Frost’s Mending Wall, it reflects the “wall” as a barrier that prevents interaction on either side. Robert Frost used the wall to symbolise the insecurities in a relationship; the neighbour’s pine orchard connoting his “prickly” nature, whereas the narrator’s apple orchard connoting his sweet nature. The wall in the poem prevented the narrator’s positiveness rubbing off on the neighbour. Frost’s use of imagery of the wall and the materials used, “in each hand, like an old-stone heavily armed,” made out the wall to be like a weapon. The iambic pentameter used for most of Frost’s poem follows a heartbeat rhythm which emphasises how “serious” the construction of the “fence” was for the neighbour who relied on the wall whereas the narrator found it to be a game. My poem is about a volcano, where “cave of truth”, represents the heart of the volcano, and “expulsion overload” is when too much lava has been expelled. The volcano itself symbolises the suppressed emotions (lava), ready to explode, and how the wall of silence preventing the emotions from being expressed will be broken. The poem incorporates iambic pentameter and a heartbeat rhythm to express the seriousness and severity of being forced to suppress emotions. The imagery in “hot like burning suns,” and “the red pulsating, livid like the flames,” appeals to the intense feelings of passion and anger, where the colour red and flames connote great anger and rage.

Throughout history, there has been a fascination with how the world will end. In recent years, these debates have centered on nuclear disasters, global climate change, and general cynicism. The Revelations chapter was added to the Christian Bible approximately two thousand years ago and details a biblical vision of the end of the world. This is a subject that has been deeply ingrained in the human psyche for a long period of time. Between the present and the time of the authorship of Revelations, Robert Frost added his own ideas to the mix, resulting in Fire and Ice, one of his most well-known and certainly one of his most powerful poems. This poem is renowned for its clarity and incisive message, as well as its invitation to pause and reflect, offering a unique perspective on the end of all things. Robert Frost (1874-1963) was an American poet and wrote ‘Fire and Ice’ in 1920, it was published in December of that year in Harper’s Magazine, shortly after World War I.

Robert Frost’s poem ‘Fire and Ice’ addresses the age-old question of how the world will end. Fire, a scorching, scalding, flesh-burning evil, and ice, a cold, blood-curdling property, come to mind while reading the title. Additionally, love and hatred play significant roles in the poem, as well as in life in general. Frost employs tone, allusion, and diction to demonstrate how both fire and ice can combine to produce the same results when hatred or desires run amok.

‘Fire and Ice’ is concise and succinct, cramming a lot into nine lines, but it does not adhere to any particular poetic form. Nonetheless, the structure is intriguing, and the poem unfolds in three distinct stages. Lines 1-2 establish the antithesis between fire and ice, establishing the poem as a form of conjecture—a rough prediction of future events. Lines 3-4 express the speaker’s personal conviction that fire is a more likely cause of the end of the world. Lines 5-9 demonstrate that, while the speaker prefers fire, ice (hate) would be just as ‘brilliant.’ Indeed, humanity probably possesses sufficient destructive capacity to wipe out the world multiple times.

In some ways, the poem is about weighing fire against ice to determine which is more destructive. The form reflects this sense of balance, with the first two lines establishing the two distinct elements and the remainder of the poem devoted to a discussion of each separately. The poem’s nine lines are significant in and of themselves. Frost’s poem is believed to have been influenced by Dante’s Inferno, a 14th-century poem about Hell. Hell is divided into nine distinct sections in Dante’s poem—the same number of lines as ‘Fire and Ice.’

Each line in ‘Fire and Ice’ is in iambic pentameter (meaning it follows an unstressed-stressed, or da DUM, syllable pattern). Some lines are in tetrameter: lines 1 and 3-7. The remaining lines—lines 2, 8, and 9—are written in iambic pentameter (Howard, 2019). The consistent iambs, combined with the varying line length, create a lighthearted, conversational tone. This is part of the overall irony of the poem, in which the speaker discusses a grave and serious subject in an unusual manner. In fact, the poem sounds more like the speaker is debating something far more mundane, such as where to order takeout from or where to go on vacation. This sense of flow is aided by the meter. This, combined with simple vocabulary, results in a poem that works its unease in a more subtle but arguably more powerful way than if it addressed the gravity of the end-of-the-world scenario directly.

‘Fire and Ice’ employs an intricate rhyme scheme. Indeed, the poem contains no end words that are not rhymed. The procedure is as follows: ABCABCB. By and large, the pure-sounding rhymes lend the poem an easy flow, which aids in establishing the poem’s conversational tone. Due to the meter variations, the reader is unsure when the rhymes will appear, but has a sense that they will eventually. This is a close approximation of the sound of light verse, which is humorous poetry. This is a component of the poem’s overall irony, which is established through the tension between the subject matter and the way in which it is presented. That being, a grave subject with a lighthearted tone.

Anaphora is used in the first two lines of the poem, which helps to establish the poem’s antithesis of fire and ice. Essentially, the anaphora is used to draw distinctions between two types of people. On the one hand, there are those who believe the world will end in fire, while others believe it will end in ice. Whilst the anaphora is frequently used to create a sense of rhetorical power, it is used here to downplay the gravity of the subject. This is because the anaphora’s actual repetition—’Some say’—is clearly conversational in tone. There is very minimal tone of a sense of panic or anxiety in the world ending. However, upon further examination, the anaphora represents both fire and ice. The anaphora is a linguistic act of division; similarly, fire and ice are acts of division. Whether by fire or ice, the world will end as a result of humanity’s collective failure—the incapability of individuals to see themselves in others in the service of a us vs them mentality. The anaphora, then, subtly foreshadows these upcoming divisions.

The second poem I will be discussing is ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,’ which was written in 1922 and published in 1923 as part of American poet Robert Frost’s collection New Hampshire. The poem is told from the perspective of a traveler who pauses to watch the snow fall in the forest, reflecting on both nature and society in the process. The poem contains impressive formal ability: it is written in perfect iambic tetrameter and employs a tight-knit chain rhyme characteristic of a form called the Rubaiyat stanza. As is the case with much of Frost’s work, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ focuses on rural life and the natural world, particularly that of New England, where Frost spent most of his time. While ‘New Hampshire’ is a celebration of Frost’s home state and its inhabitants, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ represents a different vein in Frost’s work: poetry as a meditation on a moment or object.

The narrator is hypnotized by the brief diversion from worldly responsibilities, which allows him a moment of peace. Robert Frost’s character is rooted in a forest, mesmerized by the snowy evening. For the readers, the woods are dense, dark, and majestic. More importantly, the poet creates a vision carved in natural beauty that elicits strong sensory responses from the reader. The forests are clothed in thick snow, which adds to their beauty. Since the narrator is concerned about finding his way through the woods at night when it becomes quite dark, he decides to get going. The poet also subtly suggests the existence of a human nearby, though indoors and unaware of the passersby.

The poem is written in Rubaiyat stanza style and consists of four quatrains. A Rubaiyat uses a chain rhyme pattern, in which one stanza’s rhyme flows over to the next, forming an interconnected structure. A Rubaiyat does not have a set length, but ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ is divided into four stanzas of four lines each, with each line consisting of four iambic feet or beats. This precise, engaged structure contributes to the poem’s sense of meticulous construction. In conjunction with the perfect meter and rhyme, the form contributes to the poem’s immaculate tightness, allowing it to be read easily, almost effortlessly, as a song or even a lullaby. This tone is appropriate and just as a lullaby frequently conceals a more complicated or darker message beneath its gentle melody, ‘Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening’ appears to be about the promise of freedom or rest offered by the woods, but upon closer examination may also suggest the freedom or rest found in death.

The poem employs chain rhyme, in which each stanza’s rhyme is carried over to the next, forming an interconnected structure. The first, second, and fourth lines of each stanza rhyme in this case, but the third does not. However, the third line rhymes with the following stanza’s first, second, and fourth lines, and so on. The lines then resolve into one continuous rhyme in the final stanza. As a result, the following scheme is generated: AABA BCBB CDCC DDDD (Fine, 2019).