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.
Analysis:
Rhyme: ABAABCBCB
Stanzas and Lines: 1 stanza and 9 lines
Imagery: Taste (From what I’ve tasted of desire)
Figure of Speech: Simile (From what I’ve tasted of desire)
Personal Opinion:
This poem was written by Robert
Frost in December 1920. This poem tells us about how the world will end (obviously?).
Some say that it will end in fire, and some say in ice. “Fire” here, in my
opinion, would mean “hatred”, and “Ice” would mean “ignorance”. By hating or
ignoring what’s important to us, this world would surely be destroyed.
He implied here that “from what I’ve
tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire”, meaning that he had seen
many kinds of hatred by desire. He also implied that “But if it had to perish
twice, I think I know enough of hate”, meaning that if the world were to perish
twice, hatred itself won’t be enough to do so.
That is why he stated that “To say
that for destruction ice is also great, and would suffice”. If “ice” here means
“ignorance”, that would make sense because after you grow to hate someone/something,
you’d usually want to ignore them to avoid them annoying you. That is the
stronger reason for this world to end, when people stop caring about each
other. They would just ignore each other on the sense of distrust. That is what
I think about this poem. It tells us to look out for each other, and to remove
hatred between us so that it won’t grow into ignorance which will eventually
end our existence.
-Ardiansyah