Despite being such a short poem, Fire and Ice packs quite a punch. Considering that poems have such a limited space to begin with to get their point across, it’s a credit to Frost that he can make such an impact in a fairly confined space. The structure of the poem is quite interesting. Its masculine rhyming scheme uses only 3 different sounds; ‘ire’, ‘ice’ and ‘ate’. To illustrate the rhyming scheme goes A, B, A, A, B, C, B, C, B. Whist this doesn’t fit a classic poem form the piece still has an organised structure. The nursery rhyme quality the poem has creates a dreamy atmosphere.
Due to variation of line length in the poem the meter alternates between tetrameter with four feet per line, and dimeter, or two beats per line. These variations in line length slows the reader down, creating a relaxing, almost hypnotic effect. In total there are six tetrameter and three diameter lines. For both the tetrameter and diameter lines the beats are iambic. Therefore all the lines end with a stressed beat. More emphasis is placed on the nouns of each line “fire” “ice” desire”, shifting the reader’s attention to the focal point of each line.
Alongside this affective use of meter, Frost has implemented use of sound to grab the reader’s attention. Each rhyme
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However there fire and ice analogy can also be linked to how a person may live their life. In the lines “from what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favour fire” the speaker is firstly saying that they would prefer to perish via fire; but, also that they prefer to live a life of and passion. However the lines “I think I know enough of hate, to say that for destruction ice, is also great” in this case may represent suffering. The fact that ice is cold, hard and can cause pain is likened to the challenges people face. This shows that Frost has also experienced hardship and
First, the author talked about his mistakes by saying “Some time when the river is ice ask me mistakes I have made.” (par.1); this sentence refer to the consequences that we face as the outcomes of the mistakes we make. I also believe that the author used the word “ice” in his poem to represent negative consequences. Moreover, when the river is ice, it lost its natural beauty because we cannot hear anymore the sound of the river flow. Also, it becomes cold to be around the river. I
Frost uses rhymed iambic pentameter, a favorite style of his, to create a steady flow and represent the first manifestations of winter. Iambic pentameter, in terms of style, is about as far as you can get from Mary Oliver’s free verse. As the amount of syllables in a line is constant the Frost much change his pace with much different strategies. He does this by switching from multisyllabic words to monosyllabic words. He does this by stressing words at different points in a line, creating a more hurried pace. He also uses some internal rhymes to the same effect. Mostly, Frost’s poem achieves the same mimicry of winter by focusing on the soundscape of the poem. He uses almost entirely soft vowels and he mostly avoids harsh consonant sounds. This sets up the peaceful, quiet feeling of a new winter The only time that harsh consonants are used is intentionally, when he is referring to the harshness of winter in old age. The stressed rhyme words in this section are “break”, (13) “take”, (17) and “ache”(21). Frost bends a strict poetic form to his will and creates the feeling of a wintry day and makes changes to the internal structure of the lines to vary this
Firstly, the poem “Fire and Ice”, written by Robert Frost, uses tone and poetic language in order for the reader to understand that the poem is about two opposite things being able to equally destroy us. In the poem, the lines that read, “From what I’ve tasted of desire I hold with those who favor fire” the poet is using fire as a symbol for desire. This explains that the things that we desire most have the ability to destroy us. Additionally, the lines that read, “I think I
The meaning that Frost is portraying is not obvious by the title of this poem. This poem is not literal it is meant to be metaphorical. Frost Personifies nature to have life-like traits. The title does not give you an idea of what the poem is about or what the poem means.
were one and the same. In an interview he said, 'One thing I care about,
There are several likenesses and differences in these poems. They each have their own meaning; each represent a separate thing and each tell a different story. However, they are all indicative of Frost’s love of the outdoors, his true enjoyment of nature and his wistfulness at growing old. He seems to look back at youth with a sad longing.
The poem is a first person narrative, where the author is the speaker. Frost uses words such as “fire” and “ice” to as a metaphor to describe the different manners in which the world will end; through the “fire” of passion or the “ice” of hatred. Frost uses a unique rhyme scheme to help lighten the subject and disguise the conversation as playful. The imagery in the poem helps Frost tell the reader about how he would “hold with those who favor fire. / But if it had to perish twice/… that for the destruction of ice/… would suffice.”
2. Frost used both fire and ice symbolically in the poem
In Robert Frost’s poem “To the Thawing Wind,” in the literal sense, he is asking the Southwest wind to come, melt the snow and bring spring, but symbolically he is tired of the winter and wants warm weather. He wants to burst out of his cabin and have a good time, not thinking about poetry. The poet has been confined in his winter cabin and is wanting the wind and rain to melt the snow, so it will change his winter isolation. He has been longing for the “thawing wind” because that is when spring is coming. He is anticipating spring to come because it will bring him inspiration and the freedom needed to be able to do new things and enjoy everything good that comes with this season.
Snow here could represent dullness or loneliness. Frost feels that everything or everyone around him are filled with loneliness, no excitement and everything seems to be the same. Line four in the poem says that “But a few weeds and stubble showing last.” Here it tells us that although dullness, emptiness, or loneliness covered almost everything around him, he could still see some life or excitement somewhere in between. Yet this small bits of life and excitement were nothing compared to the overwhelming emptiness. In the next couple of lines, Frost seems to have forgotten all about the weeds and stubble he saw and put his attention back to the empty, snow covered surroundings. He then looks at the woods near the field and that too have been covered in snow. He also mentioned that all the animals are covered in snow in their lairs. These two lines again emphasize how Frost feels. He knows that there are live around him, yet those life are also filled with emptiness. Soon he even realized that not only the surroundings that were filled with loneliness, but Frost himself are also in it as line eight says, “The loneliness includes me unawares.”
This poem is typical of the poet’s style because Frost writes a lot about human nature and compares people to nature itself. He judges people and society as a whole. He also uses a lot of literary devices in his poems like metaphors. Frost describes nature in beautiful ways in his poems and “Fire and Ice” is just like the rest of them. It isn’t a departure of common themes.
“Poetry is when an emotion has found its thought and the thought has found words,” Robert Frost once said. As is made fairly obvious by this quote, Frost was an adroit thinker. It seems like he spent much of his life thinking about the little things. He often pondered the meaning and symbolism of things he found in nature. Many readers find Robert Frost’s poems to be straightforward, yet his work contains deeper layers of complexity beneath the surface. These deeper layers of complexity can be clearly seen in his poems “ The Road Not Taken”, “Fire and Ice”, and “Birches”.
To analyze the poem better I took each word as if it symbolized a certain characteristic. In lines three and four, "From what I've tasted of desire I hold those who favor fire" it led me to believe that Frost was trying to use desire as a metaphor to fire. Desire, can usually be used a negative or a positive manner depending on the context it's use. In the poem I think that Frost is using it in a negative sense, because he is uses words like end, perish, and destruction in the poem. Negatively the word desire can mean the drive to win or receive something at any cost, the urge for power, which is very destructive. In lines six and nine "I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction ice is also great and would suffice". Saying that ice is a metaphor to hate. The word hate is worldly known to have a negative condensation. Hate is also
The great debate of whether the world will end in a fiery ball of destruction or a frozen wasteland has baffled the minds of many people. A man named Robert Frost has written a poem called "Fire and Ice" that describes his thoughts on how he would prefer to leave this world. Upon reading this poem, the reader can derive two distinct meanings of fire and ice; one being of actual fire and ice destroying the world, and the other having symbols for the fire and ice, such as fire being desire or passion and ice being hatred and deceit. Although this poem is one of his shortest poems with only nine lines, it is also one of the most famous works that he has ever created.