Tomás Monzón March 17th, 2009

English I 1st Period

Fire and Ice

Poetry Response

Fire and Ice is a relatively short poem by the famous author, Robert Frost, and the second part of the poem's
title, I noticed right off the bat, is synonymous to his name – ice, frost. The poem was published in 1923 in
Frost's book, New Hampshire, itself a grand collection of poems written by the author. The poem is short in its
length, but deep in its message. The main topic of the poem is important to pick up, and that is the ending of the
world. Already, this apocalyptic viewpoint, adopted in the very first line of the poem, sets the mood for the
duration of the text.

The poem likens the end of the world to fire and ice, and in turn likens fire to human desire, as well. This
likening, this connection that Frost creates is important. This told me about the author himself, by showing me
how he views human desire. He views it in the shape, or form, of fire, something that burns constantly until it is
doused and satisfied, something that burs with intensity the longer it is kept alive. This is indeed very much like
human desire. Think about it – when you really want something, you keep working towards it until you achieve
your goal and get that something that you're looking for. During that time, the closer and closer you get toy our
goal, the more anxious and zealous you get, because you know you're always one step further in the pursuit to
complete your objective. This train of thought, or rather, this concluded idea about desire, is property of the
author as well, as is evidenced by the third and fourth lines in the poem From what I've tasted of desire/I hold
with those who favor fire.

This can be interpreted as the following. The author, of course, likens desire to fire. He also says the world
could end in fire. So, in a sense, he is also saying the world would end in desire; but this, of course, is
nonsensical; the more plausible scenario s that the author believes the world could/will end as a result of human
desire. And it's true. Throughout history, for example, there have been wars. People have died, people have
fought. And what has it come of? Human desire – for more land, for more wealth, for more power, for more
control, for more influence – is what's caused wars and conflict throughout history. Now, of course, human
desire is by no means always badly intentioned – Martin Luther King desired a world where people of the black
race would not be discriminated against as hey were during his time, for example. But there is human desire
whose intentions are not the best, and it's brought much harm to the world. Likely enough, for reasons similar to
this, Frost sees fire as a possible end of the world.

Then however, Frost also says that, If it [the world[ had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To know
that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. In this context, Frost says that ice will be the end of the
world; that he knows enough of hate to know that ice would also suffice for destruction. This is a clear relation
to how hate is like ice – chilling, cold to the touch; not warm and friendly, but instead sharp and uninviting. It is
in this nature that ice can also destroy, by eliminating friendly contact between the people of the world, by sort
of stopping everything. I think that's the quality of ice that Frost thought about when thinking about this part of
the poem. Fire moves, and grows, and continuously burns, while ice is solid and remains in place. It is never
associated with warmth, as aforementioned. It's a, true to the word, “cease-fire” nature of ice that could someday
end the world.

Robert Frost's Fire and Ice, the way I see it, is an apocalyptic piece of writing, but on that has a lot of truth to
it, despite expressing the same through metaphor and, to a certain extent, personification.