preview

Fire And Ice Annotation

Decent Essays
Open Document

This short poem summarizes the common question about the destiny of the world, wondering if it is more likely to be destroyed by fire or ice.

This poem is relevant to a scientific debate about the world’s destruction. Some scientists were convinced that the world would be scalded from its ardent core, while other scientists believed that an ice age would ruin the world.

There are two groups of people who believe in either fire or ice; this can be seen in line 1 and 2, where the author uses “some” to describe those two groups. It makes readers think about which group they prefer. In the end, I think the sentence “I think I know enough of hate, to say that for destruction ice, is also great” will convince people to say that the world can be destroyed by fire just as easily as by ice. …show more content…

In the end, the narrator actually concludes that fire and ice are similar to each other.

The author shows personal experience by “comparing” desire (line 3) with fire and hatred (line 6) with ice. One thing you may have noticed after that is that the world can be identified as a metaphor for a relationship. Because too much fire and passion can eventually consume a relationship, while cold nonchalance and hate can be equally destructive.

The poem uses three sets of interwoven rhymes, based on “-ire,” “-ice,” and “-ate”, it draws lines together linking ideas and images.

poetry portfolio: (3)

Some, or actually many, of us go through our lives hoping to find that one special person that will love you back equally and provide your needs. But lines 6 and 7 prove that what Auden is trying to say and teach, is that if two people cannot love equally, you would rather be the one who loves more than the one to be loved

Get Access