![]() Desire’s opposite, hate, is not the burning hatred of an enemy or a rival, really spurred by love of what is threatened, but true, pure hate, the absence of any desire-really, an utterly inhuman indifference. Yet though desire ultimately consumes, it impels human action and human achievement, and is thus both the nobler and more human of the two emotions. As much as he favors it, the flame of desire still destroys. Then there is the most visible contrast: fire and ice, desire and hate. The human soul serves as a mirror of the entire universe. Again, the forces are better understood because they have their analogies within the human soul and vice versa. Contrasting with these impersonal, chthonic forces are the internal, deeply personal emotions of desire and hate, likened to the two literally earth-shattering forces. Both forces are understated, mentioned as mere “fire” and “ice,” but the reader knows their power must be immense if they are to destroy the world. ![]() On the external side, the poem is about as grandiose as Frost gets: the future end of the world, either in raging conflagration or in the grip of crushing glaciers. The poem presents two further contrasts for unification: the external with the internal and the cosmic with the intimate. Science finds explication in the human emotions, not vice versa, as conventional wisdom would expect. The science-the postulated end of the world-is the theoretical, while the inner human emotions are the real and because of their reality render the abstract scientific thought more meaningful. In comparing scientific theories to human emotions, Frost makes a subtle use of irony. These far-distant, theoretical world-ending cataclysms may after all prove relevant, for their destruction has a mirror in human behavior. Frost equates fire with desire and ice with hate, both very human emotions, very real, and very well known to both Frost and every reader because of their shared humanity. But then comes the first hint that the poem is not discussing scientific theories. The introduction of fire and ice as the end of the world leads the reader initially to think of the physical world. (The astronomer Harlow Shapley claimed that the poem appeared shortly after a conversation in which he explained to Frost that the sun would either expand and devour the earth or burn out, leaving the earth to freeze in space.) The end of the world is a theory with which others are concerned. The vague “some say” without the narrative voice taking sides immediately presents the viewpoint of a dispassionate observer, not particularly invested in either view at the outset. Frost achieves a marvelous juxtaposition of many polar opposites and renders them inseparable, as both are essential to the poem’s central metaphor. Indeed, it is a poem of stark contrasts: fire against ice, the cosmic against the personal, the theoretical against the real, desire against hate. The poem encompasses the universe and the forces behind the world’s undoing and at the same time peers into the depths of the human soul. Yet from this simplicity a complex metaphorical structure emerges. The language is simple, almost non-poetic, devoid of any allusion, simile, or florid effusions. Aside from “destruction,” every word has no more than two syllables. It is a simple poem, a mere nine lines-fifty-one words. But like “The Road Not Taken,” and consistent with Frost’s characteristic New England persona, it is short and direct: Unlike the tranquil autumn surroundings in “The Road Not Taken,” it deals with a more somber subject: the end of the world. ![]() “Fire and Ice” is another well-known, short Frost poem, though one not nearly as exhaustively quoted. Its narrative voice is Frost as the flinty, laconic New Englander, not prone to exaggeration or emotive outburst. The poem’s overuse is a shame, for it is a well-crafted work and emblematic of Frost: conversational in tone, restrained in its description, direct yet concealing many subtleties. ![]() The metaphor, in which the universe mirrors the human soul, has two contrasting components: fire and ice, the personal and the cosmic, the real and the theoretical, desire and hate.Īnyone who has ever attended a commencement ceremony in the United States has certainly heard Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” often recited poorly. For all the poem’s structural simplicity, Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” perfectly encapsulates the poetic concept of complex metaphor. ![]()
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