The speaker's thought process is portrayed in the poem, which is about how two elements, fire and ice,
may both destroy the earth. The speaker, however, adds the emotions of desire (line 3) and hatred (line
6), which represent fire and ice, respectively. The poem is simple, short, and easy to grasp, much like its
title. If the reader does not want to know how or why Mr. Frost composed the poem, it can be read
without doing any more research. Otherwise, they may need to do further historical study.
To imagine an extreme picture like an end of the world scenario can pose that the speaker was not in a
great place at that moment—physically and mentally. By digging deeper into Mr. Frost’s background, the
readers will know that he lived during World War 1. In fact, his friend, Edward Thomas, was one of the
soldiers who died fighting in the war. Two years after the war has ended, Mr. Frost had to commit his
younger sister in a mental institution; he composed the poem in the same year. So through this
background, the world destruction in the poem might have been a symbolism of World War 1. Other than
this, Mr. Frost might have been trying to convey that, even though his feelings at that time were not desire
nor hate, they were definitely something extreme like sadness, loneliness, and anger. Although the poem
does not explicitly say its setting, the external and internal forces that Mr. Frost was currently at back then
were conveyed instead.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, Mr. Frost had the right conditions to match the poem's location
and tone. I believe it is safe to assume that the poet is speaking in this poem. He is expressing his thoughts
on what may lead to global disaster. He might have been trying to warn his readers, particularly those
who are prone to intense emotions like desire and hatred, that these emotions can destroy not only
human relationships, but the world as well.
The poem uses metaphors such as fire to represent desire and ice to represent hatred. The elements are
created when something is too hot or too cold. Desire and hatred are both on the extreme ends of the
emotional spectrum. When fire and ice, as well as desire and hatred, go out of control, they become
destructive, potentially leading to disaster. Frost brilliantly used this to convey that once weather and
humans lose control, an apocalyptic event is inevitable. Aside from metaphors, the poem used anaphora
to refer to the groups that "say" the world would end in fire or ice. On line 7, "say" was used one last time
to let the readers know that, while the speaker first believed that fire would end the world, he also
considered that ice had its own tremendous cold manner of destroying the planet.
The rhyme arrangement of the poem is excellent and straightforward. The words "fire" and "ice" were
referenced twice each, while "fire" rhymed two times and "ice" rhymed three times. The poem was not
difficult to pronounce in general. Although, I didn't like for the arrangement of the poem's latter half,
notably lines 7 to 9. It distracts me that it switches from an 8-syllable line (line 7) to a 4-syllable line (line
8). However, the rhyme in line 9 compensates for my dissatisfaction with line 8. Other than this, this
poem's use of metaphors was appealing since it allowed for a wide range of interpretations. I especially
like the author's take on the connection between global disaster and severe human emotions. This is
because, when the causes of global disaster are exposed, emotions seem an insignificant cause.
As I mentioned earlier, the poem was open to interpretations. Since that is the case, if I could ask Mr.
Frost a question, I would ask why he introduce fire first then ice at the end of the poem? Is it because a
healthy burning relationship can eventually lead to an icy cold breakup? Is it because fire can also
represent life, and ice as death?