The Full Text of “Fire and Ice”
1Some say the world will end in fire,
2Some say in ice.
3From what I’ve tasted of desire
4I hold with those who favor fire.
5But if it had to perish twice,
6I think I know enough of hate
7To say that for destruction ice
8Is also great
9And would suffice.
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“Fire and Ice” Introduction
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"Fire and Ice" is a popular poem by American poet Robert Frost (1874-1963). It was written and published in 1920, shortly after WWI, and weighs up the probability of two differing apocalyptic scenarios represented by the elements of the poem's title. The speaker believes fire to be the more likely world-ender of the two, and links it directly with what he or she has "tasted" of "desire." In an ironically conversational tone, the speaker adds that ice—which represents hate and indifference—would "also" be "great" as a way of bringing about the end of the world. There are two reported inspirations for the poem: the first of these is Dante's Inferno, which is a poetic and literary journey into Hell written in the 14th century. The other is a reported conversation Frost had with an astronomer in which they talked about the sun exploding or extinguishing—fire or ice.
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“Fire and Ice” Summary
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The speaker weighs up two different scenarios for the end of the world. Some people think the world will end in fire, whereas others think ice is more likely. Based on the speaker's experiences with desire, he or she tends to agree with those who believe fire is the more likely scenario. If the world were to end twice, however, the speaker feels that, based on his or her knowledge of human hatred, ice would be an equally powerful method of destruction—and would do the job sufficiently.
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“Fire and Ice” Themes
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Hatred, Desire, and the End of the World
Despite its light and conversational tone, “Fire and Ice” is a bleak poem that highlights human beings’ talent for self-destruction. The poem is a work of eschatology—writing about the end of the world—and poses two possible causes for this end: fire and ice. The speaker uses these natural elements as symbols for desire and hatred, respectively, arguing that both emotions left unchecked have the capacity to destroy civilization itself.
The speaker begins by relating that, when it comes to how the world will end, “some” people favor fire and “some” ice. At this early stage of the poem, these two elements could easily relate to a natural disaster. For example, a potential world-ending “fire” could be something like the asteroid that most likely destroyed the dinosaurs; and ice could relate to a future ice age, or the extinguishment of the sun. But as soon as those more naturalistic ends to the world are suggested, the poem changes direction and makes it clear that fire and ice are symbols—not of natural disasters, but of humanity’s ability to create disasters of its own.
By “fire” the speaker actually means “desire”—and from the speaker’s limited personal experience, the speaker knows desire to be a powerfully destructive force. Humanity, then, could bring about the end of the world through passion, anger, violence, greed, and bloodlust. Indeed, the “fire” now seems like an image of warfare too. (Indeed, the poem was written shortly after then end of World War I.)
Though the speaker feels “fire” is the likely way for humanity to destroy itself and the world, the speaker also feels that human beings’ capacity for destruction is so great that it could bring about this destruction more than once. (This is tongue-in-cheek, of course, as once would certainly be enough.) Here, the speaker presents “ice” as another method for ending it all, aligning it with hatred.
Ice works differently from fire in this eschatological prediction. Human destruction doesn’t have to be bright, noisy, and violent—hate can spread in more subtle ways. Ice has connotations of coldness and indifference, and so a possible reading here is that the end of the world could be brought about by inaction rather than some singular major event. A contemporary reading could map climate change onto “ice” here: if people fail to act over humanity’s effect on the climate, it will gradually, but assuredly, bring about destruction.
By the poem’s end, though, the choice between “ice” and “fire” starts to seem a little false—particularly as the speaker’s tone is so casual and even glib (“ice is also great”). Ice and fire, though utterly different in the literal sense, here represent one and the same thing: the destructive potential of humanity. Either method will suffice to bring about the inevitable end of the world. In just nine short lines, then, “Fire and Ice” offers a powerful warning about human nature. Finally, it’s important to notice something that isn’t in the poem: any hint of a possibility that humanity won’t end the world.
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Fire and Ice”
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Lines 1-2
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.The opening two lines of "Fire and Ice" establish two important aspects of the overall poem. Firstly, they make it clear that this poem is a work of eschatology—writing about the end of the world. Secondly, they establish the poem's conversational tone, which is deliberately a little at odds with the gravity of the subject matter.
The first two lines also set up the poem's key antithesis, as the speaker considers whether "fire" or "ice" will bring about the end of the world. At this early stage in the poem, the symbolic meaning of these two elements is not yet apparent. Indeed, the speaker talks in very simple language, almost as if gossiping about someone or something: "Some say." This is all about luring the reader into a false sense of security, before the poem unleashes the disarming depth of its thought.
The lines are balanced by anaphora, the two "some says" allowing for the antithesis to be established—on one side there is fire, and on the other ice. The laidback tone masks that the end of the world is actually one of mankind's longest and most hotly contested debates: people have been predicting the end of the world pretty much since it began (or since the human race began). What's interesting about the set-up here is that, despite the casual tone, the poem has already smuggled in a rather bleak idea. Though the speaker presents two choices, they both essentially amount to the same thing: the end of the world. There is no third option in which the world is not destroyed.
The poem hasn't yet drawn the link between these apocalyptic scenarios and humanity's likely role in them, but as that becomes clear throughout the poem the sense that humankind is fated to destroy itself grows stronger and scarier. The casual tone could also be considered ironic, in that it doesn't really match the subject matter—perhaps suggesting that, though it's a hot topic, arrogant humankind doesn't really believe the end of the world is coming (not any time soon, at least).
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Lines 3-4
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
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Line 5
But if it had to perish twice,
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Lines 6-9
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
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“Fire and Ice” Symbols
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Fire
At first, the poem seems like it could be discussing natural disasters as events that might bring about the end of the world. The "fire" of line 1 could be interpreted as a meteor event, for example—the kind that most likely devastated the dinosaurs. But from line 3 onwards, it becomes clear that the "fire" in this poem is more symbolic than literal (though the former doesn't exclude the latter). The speaker directly links "desire" with "fire," which asks the reader to call on the symbolic associations that they have with the element.
Accordingly, fire comes to stand for inflamed passion, greed, bloodlust—scenarios in which humanity brings about destruction by acting rashly and violently. War, of course, would be a prime example, and so the poem is gently suggestive of the kind of wars the could bring about the end of the world.
It's also important to remember the positive associations of fire: warmth and light. These symbolic qualities don't feel very present in the poem, underscoring the speaker's implicit belief that, one way or another, humanity is fated to bring about the end of the world.
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Ice
In line 2, the end-world scenario brought about by ice could be interpreted as an ice age or the death of the sun. But from line 3, when the symbolic association between fire and desire is established, it becomes clear that the ice is also not primarily—or exclusively—literal. Indeed, from line 5 onwards, the poem makes the connotations of ice more clear. The speaker draws a link between ice and hate, putting forward the proposition that ice is "also great" for bringing about the end of the world. Though "fire" might be a kind of hate too, the hatred symbolized by ice is more about indifference or a failure to empathize.
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“Fire and Ice” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Anaphora
Anaphora is used in the first two lines, helping to establish the poem's antithesis between fire and ice. Essentially, the anaphora is used to set dividing lines between two different types of people. On the one hand, there are those who believe that the world will end in fire; on the other hand, some people believe it will end in ice. Whereas anaphora is often used to build a sense of rhetorical power (e.g., in Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech), here it's used to underplay the seriousness of the subject (which is nothing less than the annihilation of all humanity!). This because what the anaphora actually repeats—"Some say"—is distinctly conversational in tone, even perhaps a little gossipy. There is very little sense of panic or anxiety.
But, digging a little deeper, the anaphora is actually representative of both fire and ice. The anaphora is a linguistic act of division; fire and ice represent acts of division too. Whether it's by fire or ice, the world will end because of a collective failure of humanity—the inability of people to see themselves in others in service of an us vs. them mentality. Subtly, then, the anaphora hints at these coming divisions.
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Alliteration
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Antithesis
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Allusion
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Metaphor
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Enjambment
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Irony
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Oxymoron
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Sibilance
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“Fire and Ice” Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Tasted
- Hold
- Favor
- Perish
- Great
- Suffice
Tasted-
The speaker is using this word metaphorically, to mean "known" or "experienced."
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Fire and Ice”
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Form
"Fire and Ice" is tight and compact, packing a lot into its nine lines, but it does not follow a specific poetic form. Even so, the structure is intriguing, and the poem essentially unfolds in three stages.
The first stage is lines 1-2, which establishes the antithesis between fire and ice and also sets the poem up as a kind of conjecture—a rough prediction for future events.
Lines 3-4 express the speaker's own belief that fire is the more likely cause of the world's end.
Lines 5-9 explain that, though the speaker sides with fire, ice (hate) would be equally "great." In fact, humanity probably has enough capacity for destruction to end the world multiple times over.
The poem is, in a sense, about weighing fire against ice and seeing which one is more destructive. This sense of balance is reflected by the form, with the first two lines establishing the two different elements, and the rest of the poem divided into a discussion of each in turn.
The fact that the poem has nine lines is significant in itself. Dante's Inferno, a 14th century poem about Hell, is thought to have influenced Frost's poem. In Dante's poem, Hell has nine different sections—the same number of lines as "Fire and Ice."
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Meter
Every line in "Fire and Ice" is iambic (meaning it follows an unstressed-stressed, or da DUM, syllable pattern). Some are tetrameter: lines 1, and lines 3-7. The other lines—lines 2, 8 and 9—are in iambic dimeter. The tetrameter lines have four stresses, e.g. line 1:
Some say | the world | will end | in fire,
This first line is immediately followed by a line of dimeter, which has just two stresses:
Some say in ice.
Both, then, are iambic—indeed, every foot in the entire poem is an iamb. The consistent iambs coupled with the varying line length create a breezy, conversational tone. This is part of the poem's overall irony, in which the speaker discusses a grave and serious subject in a manner that seems out of step. In fact, the poem sounds more like the speaker is weighing up something far more innocuous—like which restaurant to eat in or where to go on holiday. The meter helps facilitate this sense of flow. This combines with simple vocabulary to create a poem that works its unease in a subtle but arguably more powerful way than if it were to address the gravity of the end-world scenario head on.
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Rhyme Scheme
"Fire and Ice" has a tight-knit rhyme scheme. In fact, there are no end words in the poem that are not rhymed. The scheme runs as follows:
ABAABCBCB
In general, the pure-sounding rhymes create an easy flow to the poem, which helps it establish its conversational tone. Because of the variations in meter, the reader doesn't know exactly when the rhymes will come, but can sense that they will do so eventually. This approximates the sound of light verse, which is poetry of a humorous nature. This is part of the poem's overall irony, which is built by the tension between the subject matter and the way in which it is being presented. That is, a deeply serious subject with a slightly frivolous tone.
There's another important thing to know about the rhyme scheme. It's thought that the poem might have been partly inspired by Dante's Inferno, a 14th century epic poem about a journey through Hell. The Inferno makes use of Dante's own formal invention, the terza rima: this is a poetic composition based on three-lined stanzas (tercets), in which the rhyme scheme is ABA / BCB / CDC / DED and so on. Frost's poem almost—but not quite—fits this scheme if its nine lines are divided into groups of three: ABA / ABC / BCB. In Dante's depiction, Hell has nine circles/sections. The number of lines in this poem, then, is also evidence that there might be an allusion at play.
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“Fire and Ice” Speaker
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The speaker in "Fire and Ice" is given no name, age, nor gender, but the speaker's tone nevertheless is an important aspect of the poem. Essentially, the speaker is presenting the reader with a personal opinion about how the world will end, and gently provoking the reader into considering such an epic subject. The speaker's tone, which is conversational and casual, contrasts with the seriousness of the subject matter, which thus develops the poem's sense of irony. This irony is effective because it helps disarm the reader—the speaker converses with the reader almost as if they are friends. This casual tone is most noticeable in the phrases "some say," "I hold with," and "Is also great."
There is a sense in which the speaker is just an average person—not in terms of being from any particular demographic, but in the way that the speaker relates to "desire" and "hate." The speaker has experienced some desire, and known some hate—much like most people do through the course of their lives. Perhaps, then, the poem is meant to relate a general attitude towards the end of the world, suggesting that every member of humanity has the capacity to contribute to the arrival of the apocalypse. Indeed, this suggests that the end of the world will be a collective failure.
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“Fire and Ice” Setting
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"Fire and Ice" has a non-specific setting. It is partly set in the imagination of the speaker, who is considering whether "fire" or "ice" will be most effective in bringing about the end of the world. It's also a kind of conversation between the speaker and the reader. Indeed, the conversational tone employed by the speaker is part the poem's powerful irony. Perhaps the most important aspect of the poem's setting has to do with time. The poem is an effort to imagine the future and the end of the world itself. It is set in the present, then, and provokes the reader into thinking how far away such cataclysmic events might really be.
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Literary and Historical Context of “Fire and Ice”
Literary Context
"Fire and Ice" is one of Robert Frost's most famous poems (though perhaps not quite as famed as "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" or "The Road Not Taken"). While "Fire and Ice" might diverge from the bulk of Frost poems by not being obviously set in a natural environment, it shares his common preoccupation with questions that go to the heart of what it means to be human.
Broadly speaking, Frost is considered one of the most important poets of the 20th century. Indeed, he was that rare thing: immensely popular with both the public and the critics. Such was his popularity that he was at one point dispatched to Russia by President Kennedy in an effort to ease tensions between the two countries. Together with Wallace Stevens and T.S. Eliot, he is one of the most read (and perhaps most misunderstood) poets of the age.
In this poem, Frost examines humanity's potential to bring about the end of the world. This makes the poem a work of eschatology—writing about the end of the world—and thus places it within a literary tradition as old as literature itself. That is to say, humankind has been predicting and pondering the end of the world practically since the world—or humanity's place within it—began. Most eschatology is also theology (that is, religious), and the Bible's Book of Revelation is a prime example within the Christian tradition.
On that note, a link is often drawn between "Fire and Ice" and one of the most famous poetical religious texts of all: Dante's Inferno. In the Inferno, which was written in the 14th century, the poet himself takes a tour of Hell. While, as expected, this is a place of heat and flames, there's ice there too—in fact, Satan is partly encased in a frozen lake. The nine lines of this poem perhaps echo the nine circles of Dante's Hell, and the rhyme scheme of Frost's poem is also subtly suggestive of the form Dante chose for his epic journey—terza rima.
Historical Context
"Fire and Ice" was first published in Harper's Magazine in 1920, and then in Frosts's collection New Hampshire (which won the Pulitzer Prize). This date, of course, sits in between the two World Wars, with WWI having ended only a couple of years earlier. For all of humanity's technological, economic, and intellectual progress, WWI was a stark reminder of its capacity for self-destruction—which was confirmed by the cataclysmic events two decades later during WWI. After WWI, humankind was forced to question whether the aforementioned innovations really counted as progress if the risk of self-annihilation remained so great—or, in fact, was on the rise. Indeed, there is something ominous about the way the poem seems to apply equally well to the historical moment in which it was written and the following decades (which saw the development of nuclear weapons and the use of the atom bomb), and to the contemporary era, in which humanity is forced with confronting its potentially devastating impact on the natural environment.
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More “Fire and Ice” Resources
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External Resources
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A Documentary About the Poet — An insightful video about Frost's life.
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A Reading by the Poet Himself — Robert Frost's own powerful reading of the poem.
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Robert Frost's Mission to Russia — This is a fascinating article about the time President Kennedy sent Robert Frost to Russia in the 1960s in an effort to help defuse tensions. Though this trip occurred decades later than the composition of "Fire and Ice," it was no less about the potential end of the world.
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More Poems by Frost — A number of Frost poems and an in-depth biography of the poet.
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An Insightful Interview with the Poet — In this video, Robert Frost is interviewed by author Bela Kornitzer in 1952.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Robert Frost
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