preview

Fire And Ice By Robert Frost Essay

Decent Essays

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 …show more content…

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

Get Access