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Fire and Ice

Some say the world will end in fire, A
Some say in ice. B
From what I have tasted of desire, A
I hold those who favor fire. A
But if I had to parish twice, B
I think I know enough of hate C
To say that for destruction ice B
Is also great C
And would suffice. B

Fire and Ice is a nine line poem that was written in iambic pentameter, but varies to emphasize the meaning of the poem. Written by Robert Frost and published in 1923, this is one of Frost’s simplest poems and yet it is very open in its meaning. Most people who have read this poem have formed many different views in the meaning of its words. When I initially read this poem, the first thing that came to my mind was about biblical events. In the Bible it is told that God destroyed Earth with water the first time he came to get his people in the story of Noah’s Ark. I related both to one another because ice, though frozen, is still a form of water.
In the first line of the poem; “Some say the world will end in fire” (Frost) is possibly referring to what happened in the Book of Revelations. In the Bible, the Book of Revelations says that the next time that God comes to take his people; he is going to destroy the world by fire. This is one possible biblical aspect of the poem. As I read the poem further to get a better understanding, I thought of other similarities throughout the poem. I was thinking that Frost wanted to basically put a question in the reader’s mind in that, if you had to choose a way to die, would you choose fire or ice? In lines seven through nine, “To say that destruction ice is also great and would suffice.” to me, is saying you would have to choose one of the lesser of the two evils by weighting the positive and negative side of each type of death. Frost seems to put the question in the mind of the reader of which is better: a slow cold death or a hot and slow...