GyanpithRobert Frost wonders whether the world will end in fire or in ice, using fire for desire and ice for hatred, and finds that either would be enough to destroy it. This page gives complete answers to all the Thinking about the Poem questions.
Key points
- The poem has nine lines in two stanzas (four and five lines), with the rhyme scheme abaa bcbcb.
- Fire stands for desire, greed, lust and fury.
- Ice stands for hatred, coldness, indifference and rigidity.
- The poet first sides with fire, but says ice would also "suffice" for destruction.
- The real message is that human passions, not natural disasters, can destroy the world.
Thinking about the Poem
1. There are many ideas about how the world will 'end'. Do you think the world will end some day? Have you ever thought what would happen if the sun got so hot that it 'burst', or grew colder and colder?
Yes, I think the world may end some day. Scientists say that in about five billion years the sun will use up its fuel, swell into a huge red giant and scorch or swallow the Earth. That would be an end in fire. If, on the other hand, the sun grew colder and colder, the Earth would freeze, all water would turn to ice and no living thing could survive. That would be an end in ice.
Frost's poem takes these two ideas and gives them a human meaning. He suggests that long before any natural disaster, the world could be destroyed by human beings themselves, through endless desire (fire) or bitter hatred (ice). Wars, greed and cruelty can bring the world to an end much sooner than the sun.
2. For Frost, what do 'fire' and 'ice' stand for? Here are some ideas: greed, avarice, cruelty, lust, conflict, fury, intolerance, rigidity, insensitivity, coldness, indifference, hatred.
For Frost, "fire" stands for desire. The poet says, "From what I've tasted of desire / I hold with those who favour fire." From the list, fire represents greed, avarice, lust, fury and conflict. Like fire, these feelings are hot, burn fiercely, spread quickly and are never satisfied; they consume everything in their path.
"Ice" stands for hatred: "I think I know enough of hate / To say that for destruction ice / Is also great." From the list, ice represents hatred, coldness, indifference, insensitivity, rigidity, intolerance and cruelty. Like ice, these feelings are cold and hard. They make people numb towards others, freeze relationships and slowly destroy humanity.
Both are equally dangerous; either one "would suffice" to end the world.
3. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting ideas in the poem?
The rhyme scheme of the poem is abaa bcbcb (also written as aba abc bcb). The first stanza (four lines) rhymes abaa and the second (five lines) rhymes bcbcb.
| Line | End word | Rhyme |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | fire | a |
| 2 | ice | b |
| 3 | desire | a |
| 4 | fire | a |
| 5 | twice | b |
| 6 | hate | c |
| 7 | ice | b |
| 8 | great | c |
| 9 | suffice | b |
The rhyme scheme links the contrasting ideas closely. "Fire" rhymes with "desire", joining fire to passion, while "ice" rhymes with "twice" and "suffice", joining ice to the idea that it too is enough for destruction. "Hate" rhymes with "great", stressing how powerful hatred is. The two sets of sounds, -ire and -ice, keep alternating and interlocking through the poem, just as the two opposite forces are weighed against each other. The pattern changes only slightly, so the poem moves smoothly from fire to ice and ends firmly on "suffice". The short last lines, "Is also great / And would suffice", give the conclusion a calm, chilling finality.