Fire and Ice

By– Robert Frost

Value Points of the Poem

1. The poet feels that this world of ours will come to an end.
2. He is not very clear when the end will come.
3. He comes to this conclusion on the basis of what people say on this subject.
4. He seems to show his agreement at what people say regarding the ending of the world.
5. On the basis of what people think, the poet believes that this world will come to an end by the two highly contrasting but powerful elements of nature — fire and ice.
6. Either fire or ice or both will be the cause of the ending of the world.
7. Then the poet links these two powerful natural elements to human beings and their emotions.
8. In the first stanza, the poet shows his agreement with those who believe that fire will cause the end of the world.
9. He links the element of fire to the human emotion of desire or passions.
10. The uncontrolled fire of passion and desire may lead us to the end of this world.
11. Then, the poet comes to the second alternative that can cause the end of this world.
12. It is the ‘ice’ which can also cause the end of the world.
13. In terms of human emotion, ice means ‘hate’ created by ‘cold reasoning’.
14. Cool and calculated icy reasoning can lead to hate and can be the cause of the end of this world.
15. The poet himself has experienced both these primal emotions of love as well as hate, fire as well as ice, passions as well as cold reason.
16. He has experienced enough of hate which is born out of icy cold reasoning.
17. In the end, Frost agrees that it doesn’t matter whether it is fire or ice, bo can cause the end of the world.
18. ‘Ice’ or ‘hate’ born out of cold reasoning is quite sufficient for causing the end of the world.

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