Summary & Question-answers of The Poem:1-Fire & Ice with the concerned video

Fire and Ice Summary in English

The poet is very much sure of the destruction of humanity on someday. He is talking about the two different beliefs regarding the end of this world. These are on the basis of the sayings of the people. The poet says that he is in favour of those people who say this world will end in fire. This is because he has seen the effect and result of uncontrolled and unending desires over the life of human beings. He finds that human evil desires are similar to the fire in its nature. So this fire may become a big reason to destroy humankind and this world too.

On the other hand, the second belief in this regard says that ice is also sufficient for destroying this world. Here the poet compares the nature of ice with hatred feelings of humans with the other humans. As ice can make the body numb with its prolonged contact, similarly hatred can also give the numbness to our mind and thoughts. And hence it can make us insensitive and cruel. Such cruelty towards humanity will be more responsible for the destruction of the world compared to the desire.

The speaker brings us all into the middle of the argument between two different categories of the people. One who thinks that the world will come to a fiery end and other people who think the world will freeze resulting to the end. The poet is possibly talking about the literal end of the world. But he is also talking about the power that human beings have to destroy each other.

The poet experiences the romantic desire that he has taught the passion for emotions like love and lust. These will probably have the power to turn the earth into a big fireball. But he has also experienced the other extreme side. This is about colder emotions like hate which have great destructive power. It is a common fact that love gets all the publicity, whereas hate is the silent killer. It may not have the same effect as the fireball ending, but it will do the trick.

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?

Answer

Yes I believe that this world will end some day but when nobody knows. Whether the sun gets hot or it gets colder in both the situations end of this world is sure.

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

Answer

‘Fire’ stands for greed, avarice, lust, conflict and fury. ‘Ice’ stands for cruelty, intolerance, rigidity, insensitivity, coldness, indifference and hatred.

3. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting ideas in the poem?

Answer

The rhyme scheme of the poem is: a, b, a, a; b. c, b, c,b.

The contrasting ideas of ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ are presented using this rhyme scheme. He mentions that both fire and ice are probable ends of this world. While he talks about how fire represents desire and can therefore be a cause of the end of the world, he also mentions ice in between to symbolise that the coldness and indifference towards one another will also be enough to end the world. In the second stanza, he says that he knows of enough hate in the world to be sure that even destruction through ice would be sufficient to bring about the end of the world.