Coleman Rohde

8/16/2021

Fire and Ice Analysis

Robert Frost effectively employs repetition, symbolism, and brevity in order to

effectively paint a picture of inevitable doom for mankind caused by either hate or desire. In the

first two line of the poem Frost states that “Some say the world will end in fire / Some say in

Ice” Frost uses anaphora in repeating the phrase “Some say” in order to highlight the aspects of

each sentence and draw attention to the words fire and ice which are symbolically important

throughout the piece. Frost also employs the use of meter to distinguish some lines from the rest

and thus draw special attention to them. For example the lines: “Some say in ice”, “Is also great”,

and “And would suffice” are in Iambic dimeter whereas the rest of the poems in Iambic

tetrameter. Frost thus wanted to draw special attention to words like “suffice” which imply that

something is only good enough but could be better. This implies that frost would much rather

have the world end in fire than ice.

Frost also employs symbolism extensively throughout the piece which establishes

effective imagery. Frost places the words “fire” and “ice” at the end of lines followed by “desire”

and “hate” at the end of the following lines respectively. This establishes a rather direct

connection between the two words where Frost meant to symbolize desire and hate with fire and

ice. This symbolism draws effective imagery because fire and ice are easier to imagine and

visualize than desire or hate because the sense between hot and cold is more primal. Ice is cold

like hate whereas fire is warm and visually striking. Frost thus intends to illustrate that desire

would cause the world to end in a chaotic and passionate way whereas hate would cause the

world to end in a slow decay which is why Frost prefers the former.
 The brevity of the poem itself is paramount to its meaning as it implies the end of the

world can be just as short. It is almost as if the poem is being spoken on the evening of doom, as

if one did not have enough time to perform a longer ramble of words. Thus, the brevity

combined with the striking imagery and focus provided by the symbolism and repetition

respectively provide a picture of the end of the world where humanity is doomed to die in

passion or in vain.