Robert Frost's Fire and Ice - Essay Example

Full Fire and Ice Analysis Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” is a lyrical poem with a tinge of dramatic nature as it deals with strong emotions like desire and hatred. It presents a serious tone that portrays the poet’s deep considerations of what the end of the world would be, whether it will end in fire as some believe or in ice as others are inclined to think. From a very general point of view, Frost builds his argument by stating a fact about the opposing beliefs of how the world will end (1 & 2).

With his literary skills, he gets the attention of his audience to his main point by parallelizing fire with desire (3) and ice with hate (6). The author used an open form of poetry to effectively express his thoughts and feelings about what the end of the world could be. Scientists are studying the possible end of the world and they have two theories which most probably might happen. That is, that the world will be destroyed through fire, destroying all living things as the consuming of power of fire devours the earth or that the earth will die because of extreme cold.

Frost has ingeniously caught the attention not only of the poetics but also of those who base their passions through the study of sciences and goes on to discuss the basic facts of human life that is not only true to the romantics but to the nerds as well. From a general fact, Frost calls the attention of his audience to the contents of a collective unconscious, as the psychologist Carl Gustav Jung (Ketkar) phrases it for them to ponder and think of such a necessary matter that is usually taken for granted because of the demands of daily human activities.

The poem uses parallelism of words to express the pictures in his mind when he talks about desire and hatred equating them to fire and ice, respectively, through the use of metaphors which is otherwise considered a symbolism (http://www.freeonlineresearchpapers.com). Such figurative speech used in the poem brings about the physical imagery of desire and hatred in the poem. The author expresses his perception about passion and desire in the fourth stanza like it is fire that could end the relationship of two lovers.

When desire enters a relationship, envy, rage and other strong emotions can end the life of it and reconsiders another way of how a relationship could end and that is when passion turns cold through hatred (Lopez). “Fire and Ice” forms rhythmical ends for its lines with the use of the words “fire” and “desire”, “ice”, “twice” and “suffice” and, “hate” and “great”. The poem is of an iambic pentameter with some inconsistencies which is understandably for the sake of keeping to the meanings needed to be expressed in the poem (http://www.

freeonlineresearchpapers.com). Following the contemporary form of poetry, Frost has caused his readers to think of what passion could bring to human beings which is equally essential as the issue of how the world would end. His inclusion of such a global inquiry has been an intelligent opening for his poem because generally, we consider poetry to be for the romantics while high education is for the geniuses who do not have time for love and passion which could not be true after all because in the first place, it is the basic need of every human being.

References Analysis of Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice”. n.d. http://www.freeonlineresearchpapers.com. Web. July 6, 2011. Ketkar, Sachin. From Oedipus to Anima: Carl Jung’s Psychology and Literature. July, 2010. resistancetotheory.blogspot.com. Web. July 6, 2011. Lopez, Joanna. Fire and Ice by Robert Frost: How Should the World End?. February, 2007. http://www.associatedcontent.com. Web. July 6, 2011.