Thinking About the Poem Fire and Ice NCERT Solutions (Page 15)

Q1. There are many ideas about how the world will ‘end’. Do you think the world will end someday? Have you ever thought what would happen if the sun got so hot that it ‘burst’, or grew colder and colder?

Ans. There are many ideas about how the world will ‘end’. One thing is certain. Everything that exists today has an end. The poet also believes that this world will ‘end’ some day. Both extremes can bring the destruction of the world. If the sun gets so hot that it ‘bursts’, the world will come to an end. If the world grows extreme cold and freezes, that will also mean the end of the world.

Q2. For Frost, what do ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ stand for? Here are some ideas:

greedavarice
crueltylust
conflictfury
intolerancerigidity
insensitivitycoldness
indifferencehatred

Ans. For Frost, ‘fire’ stands for passions and unbridled desires, lust and fury. ‘Ice’ย stands for cold reasoning devoid of the warmth of human feelings, and rigidity.

FireIce
greedinsensitivity
crueltycoldness
conflictindifference
furyhatred (cold reasoning)
lustcruelty
intolerance, avaricerigidity

Q3. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting ideas in the poem?

Ans. The rhyme scheme of the poem is โ€” ab aa, be bcb.
The contrasting ideas that can bring an `end’ this existing world are of
(i)fireย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย  ย (ii) ice
The rhyme scheme is beautifully and effectively used to bring out the contrasting ideas.
(i)’fire’ in the first line rhymes with desire’ and ‘fire in the third and fourth lines.
(ii)In the third line ‘ice’ rhymes with ‘twice’ in the fifth line.
(iii)In the sixth line, the word ‘hate’ rhymes with ‘great’ in the eighth line.
(iv) Similarly, the word ‘ice’ in the seventh line rhymes with ‘suffice’ in the 9th line.