The poems “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost and “Erosion” by EJ Pratt shows contrast they have with one another. At first glance we see it immediately with the rhyme schemes and meter of the poems. In his career as a poet, Robert Frost, wrote poems with traditional meters, while Frost wrote "Fire and Ice" in iambic tetrameter (in lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) and iambic di-meter (in lines 2, 8, and 9). However, this is not the case for Erosion though, as EJ Pratt believed that “rhyme and meter do not make a poem” as he wrote Erosion in stable meter; writing it in iambic tetrameter.
Although both poems revolve around the relations between nature and humanity, they exhibit some differences throughout each poem. “Erosion” shows us how the sea took a thousand years to erode a cliff while a tempest at sea took an hour to make the same erosions carve out on a woman’s face because of her sorrow after realizing her husband’s life was taken away by the tempest at sea. Contrarily, Fire and Ice outlines the fate of the world and mankind itself, reflecting if it is more likely to be destroyed by fire or ice, with Frost concluding to us that the world could end in both fire and ice. This can also be seen because of the fact that Frost wrote this after WW1 and making reference to back in the day where the atomic bomb destroyed and killed thousands of people leaving a devastation that was felt for decades after. Frost goes into a more emotional side, associating desire with fire and hatred with ice. Metaphorically speaking, the world and mankind can be recognized as a metaphor for a relationship. Too much fire and passion between them can quickly consume and hinder the relationship, while cold indifference and hate can be equally destructive to the relationship. Looking back at each poem, it shows the contrast between both poems, “Fire and Ice” shows that nature can be overturned and destroyed simply with imbalances to it, whilst “Erosion” shows us that nature has total control over us and we are helpless to fight back to the disasters nature tosses.
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
“How she longed for winter then! Scrupulously austere in its order of white and black”, this line symbolizes the lady’s desire to make things within her reach because as we’ve all know in a typical winter ambience things are very definite with only two dimension: black and white, uniformity/order is present in contrast with spring. And so with her sentiments, she wanted to attain a life free from many irregularities like what she had experienced from this little and sometimes unstable thing called love. “Ice and rock; each sentiment within border, and heart’s frosty discipline exact as snowflake”, here using elements of winter, entails the lady’s pronouncement to make her emotions wrapped and her heart frozen just to avoid anymore distractions and…
- 758 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
However in ‘An old man’s winter night’ Frost thinks there is a fraught relationship between man and nature because in the poem the old man seems to fear nature, “and scared the outer night...” This is symbolic of the man’s fear of nature.…
- 1375 Words
- 6 Pages
Better Essays -
As noted above, Frost uses many techniques to explain the significant of the poem. The most important aspect of the poem is the extended metaphor of the…
- 583 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Catherine Hatchet is a poor misunderstood girl in the American colonies. All she wants to do is get an education like a boy, but this continuously leads to her being beaten and whipped. Life was hard for a girl way back then! She throws a rock at one of their heads Then She runs home to her parents, who threaten to beat her too. She is called Bad Luck Catherine, because she was born under a bad moon…
- 856 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
1. Compare and contrast Emerson’s poem “The Snow-Storm” with Emily Dickinson’s poem “It Sifts from Leaden Sieves.” In what ways are their depictions of the snowstorms similar and different? How do the differences affect the mood of each piece?…
- 454 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Frost achieves his purpose of creating a poem which “begins in delight and ends in wisdom.” His use of metaphors, soft alliterations and biblical allusions illuminate the idea that everything beautiful eventually fades…
- 332 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In the Game of Thrones realm, coinsiding with A Story Of Ice And Fire ravens are considered to be this omniscient animal, of whom can see all things and go anywhere, and as ironic and foreshadowing as it is after Bran gets pushed off of the window sill and ends up paralyzed he has a dream where he is visited by a raven who gives him seemingly motivational words. The raven tells him that ¨Every flight begins with a fall¨ which is not only a universal truth but it is also true in the story itself.…
- 398 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
The Poems I’ve Chosen is Fire and ice by Robert frost and Part one life CXXXIII by Emily Dickenson the two poems are speaking of the destruction of the mind of a person as if the only blame for there problems is them selfs and there contanes got to them both. Now to begin what Mr. Frost is describing when he says “I hold those who favor fire but if it had to perish twice I think I know enough of hate to say that for destruction of ice is also great and would suffice.” He’s saying he’s been through the destruction of fire before and between the choices of the two hells Fire of Ice either way it goes he’s been through the depths of hell so now he’s challenging the ice as if it’s a greater way of…
- 278 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The theme of Frost's poem has everything to do with nature. Also renewal, growth, and change. The way that these are in relation to each other because you can find them all in nature.…
- 551 Words
- 3 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
How do Frost and Slessor convey their ideas in their respective poems, “The Road Not Taken” and “Beach Burial”?…
- 1457 Words
- 6 Pages
Powerful Essays -
Robert Frost manipulates the image of an ice storm in order to suggest the mistakes and regretful choices that are made throughout our lives, that can't always be changed. Frost starts of his poem by writing, “ When I see birches bend left and right/ Across the lines of straighter darker trees,/ I like to think some boy has been swinging on them”(1-3). Frost allows a picture of dense line of low hanging trees to be painted, the bent trees are a symbol of all the past mistakes frost has made that can’t be fixed. Frost continues on by saying, “ As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored/ as the stir cracks and crazes their enamel”(8-9). Frost uses the alliteration “cracks and crazes” to add the sound effect of the ice on the leaves hitting and…
- 313 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Fire and ice, complete opposites. When put together, they destroy each other for they are destructive forces. Frost is debating whether he would rather perish from freezing to death or burning to death. He…
- 664 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The poem, Fire and Ice, describes the taste of how people think the world will end. The narrator describes his beliefs along with others thought on the topic of whether the world will end with fire or ice. For most people, they believe in the world ending in fire, although, the narrator believes in ice for the destruction of earth.…
- 227 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays -
Dickinson and Frost expresses their views on darkness and night in the poems, “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” and “Acquainted with the Night”. Although the two poems have a similar subject and imagery, there are differences in the tones and views. The subject of the two poems is the struggles in life, which is symbolized as night and darkness. In both poems, there is this walk or journey that the narrators take, most likely a metaphor for life.…
- 410 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
We start off the poem with Frost imagining a forest of bent birch trees. He wishes that the trees were bent by children playing on them, a nostalgic, childhood merriment that Frost once engaged in when he was a child, but we’ll get more into that later. Despite his lofty indulgence, he knows what really causes the birches to bend, and that is the “ice-storms”. Using this fact, he goes on to elaborate on the beauty of birch trees; such as comparing the falling ice from the trees as “crystal shells”, or as “the inner dome of heaven had fallen” and even going on to say the trailing leaves were “like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair before them over their heads to dry in the sun”. He tends to lose himself in this embellished fabrication…
- 218 Words
- 1 Page
Good Essays