Frost achieves a marvelous juxtaposition of many polar opposites and renders them inseparable, as both are essential to the poem’s central metaphor. Indeed, it is a poem of stark contrasts: fire against ice, the cosmic against the personal, the theoretical against the real, desire against hate. The poem encompasses the universe and the forces behind the world’s undoing and at the same time peers into the depths of the human soul. Yet from this simplicity a complex metaphorical structure emerges. The language is simple, almost non-poetic, devoid of any allusion, simile, or florid effusions. Aside from “destruction,” every word has no more than two syllables. It is a simple poem, a mere nine lines-fifty-one words. But like “The Road Not Taken,” and consistent with Frost’s characteristic New England persona, it is short and direct: Unlike the tranquil autumn surroundings in “The Road Not Taken,” it deals with a more somber subject: the end of the world. “Fire and Ice” is another well-known, short Frost poem, though one not nearly as exhaustively quoted. Its narrative voice is Frost as the flinty, laconic New Englander, not prone to exaggeration or emotive outburst. The poem’s overuse is a shame, for it is a well-crafted work and emblematic of Frost: conversational in tone, restrained in its description, direct yet concealing many subtleties. The metaphor, in which the universe mirrors the human soul, has two contrasting components: fire and ice, the personal and the cosmic, the real and the theoretical, desire and hate.Īnyone who has ever attended a commencement ceremony in the United States has certainly heard Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” often recited poorly. For all the poem’s structural simplicity, Robert Frost’s “Fire and Ice” perfectly encapsulates the poetic concept of complex metaphor.
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