Poetry Analysis of Robert Frost's

This comparison suggests that Frost views desire as something that consumes and destroys. Desire does indeed have a way of consuming those it infects. However, in the next stanza Frost makes the case for the destructive force of ice. He compares ice to hate. This comparison relates to the reader a view of hate as something that causes people to be rigid, unmoving and cold. Also, ice has a tendency to encompass things and cause them to crack and break. The last line of Frost’s poem asserts that the two destructive forces are equally great. Fire, or passion, consumes and destroys quickly, leaving ashes in its wake. Ice, or hatred, destroys more slowly. It causes object to become so immovable that they crack from the pressure created, leaving split fragments that once were whole. From the views frost states in this poem it would be fair to extrapolate that he believes the world will end in violent war for coveted things. However, Frost also could conceive of an end of the world caused by people becoming too rigid, unmoving and set in their ways and ideas that the world breaks apart into factions. Perhaps the destructive force of ice described in the poem was at work in the “cold” war. The Soviet block was set in its belief in communism, and the NATO countries were firmly convinced of the virtues of capitalism and individuality. Cracks formed, creating fragments of a former whole, Europe. Fire was at work in early wars in which nations desired more money and territory. It may be fitting then that Frost said the second destruction would be brought about by ice. Fire destroyed Europe in the World Wars, but was rebuilt and then destroyed by ice. Care must be taken, evidently, to keep the world at room temperature.