Through a deeper reading of the poem, I think Frost is trying to discover the distinction between love and hate through symbolism. Fire is love or burning desire. The ice symbolizes hatred, or a cold heart. When Frost says, “From what I’ve tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire”, I think he is stating that he has felt the kind of love, known as fire, and is more likely to burn from the desire rather than freeze from a frozen heart. The hatred like ice is always the same. Constantly cold and hard like a bad winter. However, the love, or fire, is continuously burning and the passion and desire only get bigger. Love is consuming while hate is cold and stops everything.
The metaphor of fire and ice is very powerful. It is easy to take this poem in the simplest form, because of the reality of the idea of the world being destroyed in fire or ice. When taken as a metaphor, the simple words suddenly mean something very profound. Yvette Sangiorgio states, “Both of these extremes destroy the soul of humanity and the individual, and the metaphors of fire and ice fit” (Sangiorgio par. 3). Through this she is now comparing the world to the human soul. Fire and ice control much of rhyming scheme in this poem. Thus making the word hate, stand out. Although ‘great’ rhymes with hate, it seems as if this word is out of place with the rest of the poem.
Frost’s ‘Fire and Ice’ is written in nine lines. He ends this poem in iambic dimeter when the general pattern is of iambic tetrameter (Serio par. 1). The word lyric ‘I’ is somewhat forced onto readers and leaves an autobiographical point. Many critics think that through these two ideas, Frost was modeling his poem after Dante’s Inferno (Serio par. 6). The structure and the theme of both poems is considerably similar.
The poem, written is the twenties, is also a good indicator that it had a sublevel meaning. This era was one in which love was a popular feeling. If Frost had fallen in love, or been consumed by the burning fire of desire, he would have had strong feelings of love. The same goes for if he was shut out by lover, leaving him cold and hard to the world. Other critics such as Sally Pobojewski, believe that the era the poem was written had nothing to do with the initial meaning of the poem (LSAmagazine 28-29). The twenties were such an influential time period, that I think the meaning of the poem is almost guaranteed to reflect on the era.
Looking through not only the surface meaning, but a close reading of the poem, along with taking in the outside reading, it has become easy to put it all together. Robert Frost was trying to achieve a double meaning throughout the entire poem, “Fire and Ice”. He does in fact achieve this by the word choices he made. Also the metaphor and rhymes he makes are unmistakable as to lead one to a deeper meaning. Reading the poem with a complete open mind, will help you to see the various aspects many critics view on this poem. However, when I read the poem I knew immediately Frost was talking about love. In some sense, everyone has felt the effects of a burning love or lack of love, taken over by the feeling of coldness. Digging for a deeper meaning of the poem, it is evident Frost was not only talking about the end of the world, but also the end of a person. The effects of love and hate are enough to put an end to a person, as are the effects of fire and ice to put an end to the world.
Works Cited
Kearns, Katherine, “Fire and Ice”. On Fire and Ice. 1994. 17 September 2005.
Pobojewski, Sally. “This Is the Way the World Ends.” LSAmagazine 23.1 (Fall 1999):
28-29.
Sangiorgio, Yvette. “Fire and Ice” Fire and Ice- Robert Frost. 12 May 2001. 17
September 2005.
Serio, John N. “Fire and Ice”. On Fire and Ice. 1994. 17 September 2005.
