The Destructive Emotions as Depicted in Fire and Ice by Robert Frost
“Fire and Ice” written in 1923 by Robert Lee Frost is one of many interesting poems that he wrote in his life, because it gives the reader a lot to think about after reading it. He was an american poet that lost a lot of people through his life. I believe all that lost and sadness makes his poem more relatable to people. Frost is the narrator and speaker of this poem. By him being the speaker of the poem rather then using an unknown person he is affecting the tone and the mood. One example of him affecting the tone of the poem in his word choices is when he uses the word “perish”. Using that word gave the word and the poem a stronger meaning, rather then using words like vanquishing, disappearing, or leaving. The poem has an iambic tetrameter and diameter beat to it and the rhyme scheme is ABA ABC BCB. The tone of the poem is somewhat sad and depressing, but straightforward to support his theme of the poem.
The theme of the poem is that if not restrained the imbalance of emotions will eventually lead to the destruction of humanity and society. This poem introduces the reader to the idea that the world could end in two ways, in fire or in ice. In the poem, Frost hints that humans will be the cause of the end of the world, one way or another, no matter what road they take. He compares desire to fire and hate to ice. Frost sees desire as an emotion that can demolish and consume, much like fire can destroy anything around it. Also, desire can lead to greed which then turns into jealousy and jealousy makes people do ugly things to others. He then compares ice to the feeling of hatred, because hatred is unforgiving and causes people to be cold and cruel to others. Both desire and hatred are emotions that are deadly and cause terror in their own way. Ayala Lopez 2 In the poem fire is the symbol for desire, and Frost agrees with those who say that fire will end the world by saying, “From what I’ve tasted of desire/I hold with those who favor fire” (Meyer 880). Frost is agreeing that desire will end the world due to his personal experience tasting desire.
Desire could end the world, because human’s desires to obtain something they do not have can end in the extinction of life, until that person obtains what they desire so badly. In the poem the Frost seems to have “tasted desire” (Meyer 880) at some point in his life and is aware of how overpowering this emotion is and how dreadful it can be. Because desire is an emotion that clouds the minds of people, and when someone desire something so badly they become blind to the measures they take to obtain what they want so badly, no matter who or what they hurt in the process of that. Not only can people see fire as the symbol for desire but they can also see it as the symbol for love; because love cause lust, desire, pain and overpowers people. When someone is in love that person cannot think straight because there consumed by love. Love is not bad, but sometimes people think that there doing the right thing for love, when in reality there not, there just blinded by it. Another symbolism Frost uses in his poem is Ice. Ice represents hatred to Frost in the poem, because he writes, “I think I know enough of hate/To say that for destruction ice/Is also great/And would suffice” (Meyer 880).
Meaning that he is familiar with hatred and knows how deadly it can be to people and to the people around it. Frost is making a connection between hatred and ice, because “ice” is cold and hatred is unforgiving and ruthless and makes people be unkind to the people around them. Also, hatred can be dangerous and ugly and it can motivate people to be violent and cause crime. He uses these symbolism in his poem because he wants the reader to experience what he or she is reading at that moment. Meaning that he wants the reader to remember the experiences they have with these emotions and what those emotions cause them to do. Everyone knows the world will end at some point in life, but no one knows how or when. But this poem proposes Fire or Ice as the likely causes of the world’s end. To bring the idea that fire or ice can cause the end of the world in real life he links these symbolism to human feelings and experiences humans go through. He uses fire as desire and Ice as hatred.
Both which are emotions that can easily destroy the world, because both can cause crime and violence in the world. It is easily to understand this poem, because he is comparing two physical feeling which are ice and fire, to emotions like desire, hatred, and greed. Which are extreme emotions that can easily destroyed the soul of humanity. One meaning that he might want readers to think about after reading this poem is why is it so easy for these emotions to over power people into doing horrible things to other humans.
