Frost’s Early Poems: Fire and Ice
Robert Frost is a distinguished, celebrated, and famous poet. Many of his works are widely published, and he has achieved international fame. His legacy is preserved in the very thing to which he loved and was great at poetry. One of his more acknowledged poems is Fire and Ice. Fire and Ice is only one stanza, also nine lines. And yet, somehow, it conveys a much deeper understanding of the world around us, and anticipations for the future. In his poem, there is a clear difference between fire and ice. They are seen as perfect opposites, much like the colors black and white. Frost means that the world is going to end in one of two ways: to either be burned in an inferno until nothing remains but ashes, or to freeze over in a massive ice age, much like the previous ones, only this time more, it will be a more permanent fixation. In my opinion, this might be a reference to global warming.
Global warming is when holes are created in the ozone layer. The ozone layer helps reflect much heat and radiation out of Earth’s atmosphere and surface. Global warming hs drastic consequences, including the risk of polar ice caps melting, increased temperatures, and frequent bizzare, unnatural weather conditions and events. The fact that temperatures are rising could hint that the world ends in a blaze of heat. Bizarre weather conditions include blizzards, which might be a reference to the world ending in ice. However, Frost states that both the elements, fire and ice, would be adequate in the destruction of humanity. At the time, scientists were debating whether or not the apocalypse would be an inferno or the ice age.
Frost claims that of what he has tasted of desire, he holds favor with those who say fire. Fire might mean greed or an unhealthy obsession. Fire might symbolize out of control emotions, even if with good intent, that could potentially become negative, and cause harm. Obsession and greed, like fire, eat away at a person’s mind, body, and soul, until nothing remains but an empty husk of what they once were. Fire has properties which enable it to spread quickly. Fires claim about three thousand five hundred every year and injure up to fifteen thousand.On the other hand, Frost says that if the world were to perish twice, then ice would also suffice. Ice signifies cold-heartedness and hate, the opposite of fire. Ice signifies no emotion, which also can destroy someone, but in far darker more twisted way. It can even destroy the one who tries to harm others. As it is said, those who plot the destruction of others, perish in the attempt.
