Fire and Ice -- Robert Frost

(Poem #779) Fire and Ice Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what I've tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. -- Robert Frost

[Somebody Else's Commentary]

Initially, few readers progressed in their appreciation beyond the
deceptively simple surfaces of his poems. But Frost writes symbolic poetry;
to arrive at certain basic truths about life, he explores feelings and
thoughts obliquely, through the use of simple bucolic incidents. Poems as
immediately accessible as "Stopping by Woods", "Mending Wall" and "Birches"
possess levels of meaning that are dark and profound - like subtle literary
parables. Although few of his early readers ever went beyond the delight to
the wisdom of Frost's poetry, the notion that he was merely the singer of a
benevolent nature is no longer accepted. He was a passionate and troubled
man, who sought in his poems 'a momentary stay against confusion'; and his
skillfully constructed poems testify to his mastery over that confusion.

     -- Gary Geddes, "20th Century Poetry and Poetics" (Oxford, 1996).

[My Own Commentary]

Frost is a master at making simple words say profound things. Here, he takes
an idle daydream, a whimsical (albeit slightly dark) musing, and converts it
into a telling insight into the destructive power of desire and hate, fire
and ice respectively. The metaphor is apt, and powerful: just as fire and
ice may one day destroy the external, physical world, desire and hate
destroy the internal, spiritual one. Very gnomic, and very Frost.

thomas.

[Minstrels Links]

Other poems by Robert Frost:

Poem #730, "Mending Wall"
Poem #681, "The Secret Sits"
Poem #336, "A Patch of Old Snow"
Poem #170, "The Need of Being Versed in Country Things"
Poem #155, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening"
Poem #51, "The Road Not Taken "

The last of these has a biography and lots of critical notes.