Fire And Ice By Robert Frost Essay

Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice” is centered around the all important question concerning the end of the world. At first, Frost appears to be discussing the physical world ending, but through symbolism, the reader can gather that Frost is actually discussing the end of humanity. The symbols that Frost adequately incorporates into the poem are fire and ice. Robert Frost uses the symbolism of fire and ice to justify the speaker's position on how they think humanity is going to dissipate. The first symbol that Frost incorporates into his poem “Fire and Ice”, is fire. The symbol of fire is first introduced in lines three and four. Frost writes in lines three and four, “From what I’ve tasted of desire / I hold with those who favor fire."
Robert Frost first introduces the second symbol of the poem in line six. Beginning in line six the speaker says, “I think I know enough of hate/ To say that for destruction ice/ Is also great/ And would suffice.” In these lines, Frost uses the physical concept of ice to begin symbolizing hate/coldness. The meaning behind the symbolism for hate is obvious and straightforward. Ice is often viewed as a representation for detestation and coldness. Detestation, or hatred, also leads to a path of destruction. True hate is pure evil, and if it is bottled up over time, it eventually will explode. This explosion would cause destruction for everything in its path, and might even become deadly. With that being said, in line six the speaker is stating that they have too seen a lot of hate and coldness when it comes to the human race. The speaker has seen what the act of hate can lead a person to think and do, which are evil things. Although the speaker of “Fire and Ice” firstly concludes that they think all of humanity would do well to end in fire, they also agree that the world ending in ice would “suffice” as well. The speaker is suggesting that because hate can lead to such destruction, ice would be just as efficient at ending the world as