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The poetry of Robert Frost is often considered as naturalist or rural, with a folksy tone.

The truth is his poems offer more than romantic descriptions of animals, trees and heavy snow. Frost's poems touch on intangible feelings and broader social questions that yearns to be answered inside the very heart of every person. The man behind poems like Nothing Gold Can Stay and Fire and Ice experienced triumph and received public recognition in his time. The same man also experienced pain with the loss of one of his sons and one of his daughters at an early age. This was a man who experienced much of the world, and put his experiences into his poetry. The poem Fire and Ice by Robert Frost is a nine line stanza that is written in free form. The poem is mostly in iambic tetrameter, such as in line three when it goes, From

WHAT/ i've TASTE/d OF/

deSI/re, in this case with a feminine ending. The first and last two lines are not very similar to the rest of the
poem, they are neither in iambic tetrameter nor eight syllables. This makes them stand out and catch the attention of the reader while helping shape the structure of the poem. The last two lines are very short compared to the rest of the poem and almost seem as if they should have been put together as one line. Even with no comma or period, the separation of these two lines alone acts as a caesura, giving the reader a tense moment before the final proclamation from Frost. This is a powerful ending to the poem and is made so by the placement of this caesura. If one reads the poem carefully, one can see it is comprised of three sentences. The sentences are enjambed for greater rhythmic effect on lines three and four when it goes, From what i've tasted of desire / I hold with those who favor fire. Furthermore, this enjambment is mirrored by the enjambment of lines six and seven when it goes I think I know enough of hate / To say that for destruction ice. This balances and gives the body of the poem a steady and powerful rhythm. There is also use of alliteration in the poem by frost. The first two lines have the same beginning with "Some say." This alliteration helps these first two lines flow with the rest of the poem and create a stronger rhythm. Some more alliteration happens in line four, Frost uses alliteration again with "favor fire." The rhyme scheme is not so balanced, and though the words Frost uses to rhyme are simple and unforced, it still manages to create a unique and interesting rhythm. The poem also has an irregular rhyme scheme of abaabcbcb. The first line rhymes with line four and is unique in this pattern. Lines five through nine are rhymed regularly to form a more steady and traditional ababa form. The only lines that rhyme back to back are lines three and four, From what i've tasted of desire / I side with those who favor fire. This creates a strong sense of certainty and immediacy that otherwise is absent in the discussion of the end of the world. This also similar to the effect in

the end where the last two lines are almost an internal rhyme, with Frost deciding to cut what could easily have been originally one line into two lines and thus creating a more interesting end to the poem. Robert Frost is a poet that uses nature and natural events to confront human issues. Even when it is not a narrative, poems describing nature or natural events such as in Fire and Ice have humans in it as well. In Fire and Ice the speaker refers to what Some say on the issue of the end of the earth (Frost, line 1). He adds himself to the debate with his input based on From what I've tasted of desire to give the poem a very personal tone (line 3). This turns the poem into a conversation between the speaker and the reader. The tone of the speaker is very casual and non-alarmist. If we read deeper, however, it also gives insight to the human perception of the different natures of personalities and relationships. A biographer on Frost actually states that this poem is inspired by a passage in Dante's Inferno. This end of humanity by fire or ice does summon the image of religion and mythology, but if one reads deeper, this is really a tool used by Frost to talk about morality and the destruction of healthy relationships between people. One can view the poem as a statement on the end of the human soul. It can be said that the word fire is a symbol in this poem for desire, and ice for hate. Frost, in this sense, creates a layered debate about the end of the earth paralleling the end of humanity. This is alluded to on line three when Frost says, "From what I have tasted of desire," as if it is a vice he has not indulged in too much to completely ruin him, yet (line 3). The motif of desire being a means to one's end is hinted at in this line. The fictional debate in this poem can be framed as one about whether desire is something that is manageable at all. Perhaps Frost sees desire and hate as an inevitable trait in humans, just as the end of the earth is. The end of the earth as we know it will come eventually, but what ends up being the cause of it, may be harder to predict. Frost may be predicting that human's out of control desire may be one of the possible paths to that end. There is little to be debated in the argument of whether the end of life is ever to come, but this poem would be quite trite for Frost to have penned and published if it truly was merely a simple inflection on the apocalypse. Then what is the true reason this argument between fire and ice is poised, what is Frost truly concerned with? If we take to heart the account by Harvard astronomer, Dr. Shapley, that he inspired Frost to write this poem, Frost could have been using the serious question of the apocalypse in a sarcastic manner in this poem. Dr Shapley states how he assumed Frost was joking when he asked him, "You know all about astronomy. Tell me, how is the world going to end?" (Hansen). The sarcasm could carry on into this poem with the question of the world ending being of little importance to the speaker, as evident in line five when he states, "But if it had to perish twice. Here the end is treated like a brief and slightly bothersome fact that preoccupies more than it scares him. The end of the

world can symbolize the end of innocence and good intentions with others. In other words, as we grow older we do not simply behave unassumingly as we did when we were young, our old innocence perishing. So what does Frost mean when he says "if it had to perish twice?" Can one assume that the end of anything is possible more than once? There are many natural events such as forest fires that can perish twice, but surely these are cycles, where the second perishing in Frost's fifth line alludes to an air of finality. There is one way to understand this, and that would be with the earth symbolizing people and innocence being what is lost. One is innocent to the intentions of others as a child; and with time loses this blind trust as one matures into an adult. The second perish comes when one reaches senility and becomes child like again. One can also view this poem as a judgment on the hate and desire in humans. In this take on the poem, fire and ice symbolize the two extremes in behavior that create hate between people. Fire can symbolize the more confrontational and spirited demeanor. A heated disposition can sometimes instill animosity and grudges between people. Fighting physically and yelling at each other are ways of communicating hate in a fiery tone. Frost could be asking whether the most hideous way to live is with a careless fire and outspokenness or with a quiet and cold demeanor. He might be referring to a strained relationship in his personal life when he states, "I know enough of hate" (6). Perhaps he was ruminating at the time of writing this poem over his distant relationship with one of his sons, or a rough patch with his wife after his first son died. This is just one clue that solidifies the theme that this is really about relationships and the things that destroy them. In this poem can Frost be wondering if whether having an icy of fiery personality is worse? Perhaps, but in the end he concludes that the two extremes are equal in horror. He could be arguing that in the end a balance between the two is healthier. Frost might also be trying to say that there really isn't too much of a difference between the two. Hate and desire can both be destructive forces. Ice and fire can both equally destroy. Throughout his poems, Frost uses objects in nature as symbols to help understand human emotions. His poems often give just a slice of the human experience; leaving it up to the reader to fill in the greater picture. The way Fire and Ice is arranged is interesting in that is small, not always in iambic tetrameter and composed of an odd number of lines. Frost uses these techniques to give the poem a fresh, modern feel as well as create a more unique rhythm for the reader. The poem could have been a less unusual ababcbcb rhyme scheme if Frost took out line three or four, but surely Frost was having fun with poem structures when he made this one. Fire And Ice is a great little poem that has a lot of depth. It is truly no wonder why it is to this day one of Frost's most famous poems.

Works Cited Hansen, Tom. "On

"Fire and Ice""On "Fire and Ice" Web. 06 Nov. 2012

Meyers, Jeffrey. Robert Frost: A Biography. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996. Print.

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