Explication on Fire and Ice

If you had a choice on how the world would end, what would you choose? Would your choice to be go painfully but fast? Perhaps you would rather it be so slow and painless you do not even realize it is happening? That’s what I believe Robert Frost’s poem Fire and Ice is meant to express. Although the poem is short, it holds a very interesting question to think about. The question is which way would you rather the world come to an end. There are two choices. The first two lines in Fire and Ice express the choices, “Some say the world will end in fire, / Some say in ice.” I feel that he uses the term fire not to hold the direct meaning of a burning flame, but to represent the punishment something can inflict upon an object. It presents the image of the intense pain in which a burn can inflict, along with the extraordinary speed in which it happens. Fire causes a tremendous amount of destruction to virtually anything within seconds. It could also represent just a violent ending. Either way, it would be nice to have things over with fast, but the intense pain might not make it worth it. For the world to end in ice, seems to present the image of a slower, numbing effect. I feel he uses ice to represent a slow, almost unnoticeable change that eventually causes the destruction of mankind. Fire, instantaneous combustion of an object. Frost uses fire to represent an ending with incredible speed and unimaginable pain. The quote, “From what I’ve tasted of desire” seems to represent the tendency of people to be impatient. The way many people of today are, they can not wait. They must have what they want, and they must have it now. That is one of the main purposes of a loan. Someone wants a car, but does not want to take the time to save the money. They instead borrow the money and have to pay it back, of course at a higher cost with interest. I can honestly say that a huge majority of people are in debt.