My Critical Reflection on "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost

 Robert Frost Chooses Fire

 

Humans are the kind of creatures that like to ponder over death and specifically, their own deaths.

Robert Frost is no different. 

Indeed, he writes this poem called "Fire and Ice", and like most poetry, it is about death.  The biggest different between what most other people would say and our poet’s words is the fact that he is contemplating the world’s death and not just his own.  

Beginning with the rhyme scheme, Frost uses a basic one that has the effect of producing music, or at the very least, a musical beat.

ABAABCBCB 

Fire, Ice, Desire, Fire, Twice, Hate, Ice, Great, Suffice. 

These last words that rhyme also pretty much carry the bulk of the poem.  The last words of any poem usually provide us, the readers, with a brief understanding on what the poem is talking about and in this case, the fire and ice methods both appear here with connections to certain emotions and specifically, information about Frost's preferences. 

Obviously Frost is talking about death so either method, fire or ice,  would result in the same outcome; therefore, the method itself must hold its own importance. 

Frost prefers fire and Frost puts it first in the poem.

Frost explicitly says that he himself favors fire over ice.  There are many different ways by which Frost shows us this; one of which is explicitly stating it in the poem.  The other methods, however, are not as explicit, but rather more implicit. 

Method #1: Alliteration 

The alliteration in the line, "Favor" and "Fire", calls attention to the fact that fire is like to passion and overall emotion. Frost also links his own favor to the element of destruction.  Based on this emphasis, we can figure out that Frost prefers to be ended by a force that is alive and not by ice that is emotionless and the exact opposite of fire.

Method #2: Ignoring name sakes

Robert Frost does not want to die by frost until the second time he courts death and is sure to die.  Frost's last name is FROST, which is an offshoot of actual ice and cold weather.  The fact that Frost ignored this connection to himself, chose fire first, and also placed Fire before Ice on the poem lines indicates that Frost prefers fire in every way and wants to make certain that that preference is reflected in all aspects of the poem.

Method #3: Placing Ice 2nd

Most people find doing thing twice tedious and annoying.   These feelings can often result in hatred, which is an emotion that can be linked to Ice if that hate is a cold hate. If someone like Frost had to die twice, he most certainly would hate death for making him go through it twice; therefore, Ice as a second choice accommodates the feeling of cold and unforgiving hatred for having to die twice. 

 Method #4: Is it good or is it great?

     
                VS. 

When people describe what they love, they like to over embellish and affix adjectives like "amazing" and "perfect" to those loved objects.  Frost's description of Ice, as a force of death and destruction, is found in this line: "It is also great/And would suffice".  At first, readers would think that Ice was "great" in the sense that it was not a force to be reckoned with and has significant power, but we quickly realize as we keep reading that that is not what Frost intends to mean.  He is not over embellishing Ice, but rather, he is describing it as "sufficient".  It is the word "suffice" that throw us off the idea we initially perceived by the word "great".  The  juxtaposition of these two words, "great" and "suffice", are exact opposites just like Fire and Ice and they both play into Frost's preference for fire over ice.  Ice, even though it suffices in its role as the death reaper, is not as great as Fire, giving "great" a double meaning.  This double meaning places Ice as a "great" force that is capable, but not the best or most amazing force out there.   

In the end, Frost shows us that he prefers Fire to Ice in all ways.