Robert Frost (1874 -
1963) is regarded as "an American poet" because of how well he
understood Americans' use of language and colloquialisms, his faithful
depiction of beautiful and rustic New England, and his realistic portrayal of
life and strife of everyday individuals.
Fire And Ice was first published in 1920, a couple of years
after World War I. Though simply written it deals with the complex theme of the
world's end, theologically falling under the paradigm of eschatology. Though
biblical eschatology gives divine reasons for the end of the world and the
final human fate, Frost's take on it is slightly different colored by his own
experience - his religious convictions being ambiguous.
Dante's Inferno, the devastation caused by World War I, and an
ominous conversation with an astronomer might have been the stronger influences
for this poem. The astronomer had theorized that the world would meet its end
in the event of the sun either blowing up or blowing out.
This article is copy protected!
|
Frost opens the short poem with a casual reference to the debate
that exists among scholars about whether the world will end in flames or freeze
to extinction. It then takes an unexpected turn, and the poet's oft employed
simultaneous validation of two divergent or opposing ideas comes into play
In lines 3 and 4, Frost claims that the heat of blazing human
"desire", that is passion, avarice, malice, lust for power, etc makes
him think that the world will burn to its end. In his view, unfettered human
emotions can be devastatingly destructive.
Frost then goes on to suggest that if this world "had to
perish twice", which is an obvious impossibility, and a flippant way for
the poet to suggest that the brutality of unchecked human emotions could
annihilate the world twice over, as the presence of enough unmonitored
cold-blooded "hate" has the potential to visit a chilly end upon the
planet.
Notice that Frost here does not ascribe natural disasters or divinely ordained events to have the power to bring an end to human civilization, but he credits innate human ability and capacity for chaos as the ultimate obliterator of humanity and the world itself.
The poem is interpreted by Mahrukh Shah, one of the contributors to the SOL Community.
