This post of KhulkarSeekhen provides solutions of Class 10th English First Flight poem Fire and Ice by Robert Frost. I recommend first read the summary of Fire and Ice to understand the Thinking about the Poem Fire and Ice questions better.
Poem:
Some say the world will end in fire
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favour fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
Poet: Robert Frost
Glossary given in the textbook: perish — die; suffice — be sufficient.
Fire and Ice Thinking about the Poem Question Answer
Q.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?
(This question invites your own opinion. Here is a full sample answer. I have deliberately kept the sample answer long so that, by reading it, you can make your own answer even better.)
Sample answer: Yes, the world will almost certainly end someday. Nothing in nature is permanent; everything that has a beginning must also have an end, and scientists too believe that the earth and the sun have a limited life. Different religions, myths and scientific theories describe this end differently: some speak of a great fire, some of a great flood, some of an ice age.
If the sun grew so hot that it burst, the effect on the earth would be terrible. The temperature would rise beyond bearing, the oceans, rivers and lakes would boil away, forests would catch fire, and the land would turn into a scorched desert. Plants, animals and human beings would be burnt to ashes and every trace of life would be wiped out.
If the sun grew colder and colder, the opposite would happen. Sunlight and warmth would fade, plants would die for want of photosynthesis, and the seas and rivers would freeze. Snow and ice would cover the whole earth, and all living creatures would perish of cold and starvation.
The poet, however, is not really worried about the sun. His point is that the world is far more likely to be destroyed by human beings themselves by our burning desires or by our cold hatred than by any accident in the sky.
Q.2. For Frost, what do ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ stand for?
Ans. For Frost, ‘fire’ stands for desire and ‘ice’ stands for hatred.
(Read this to make your understanding even better:
For Frost, ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ are not merely physical forces; they are symbols of two destructive human emotions.
‘Fire’ stands for the burning, uncontrolled passions of man: desire, greed, avarice, lust, conflict and fury. Like fire, these passions consume a person from within and destroy everything around them. Frost says that from what he has tasted of desire, he sides with those who believe the world will end in fire because greed and desire are so widespread today that they alone could destroy mankind.
‘Ice’ stands for the cold, hard emotions: hatred, coldness, intolerance, rigidity, insensitivity and indifference. Ice does not burn; it freezes, numbs and kills slowly. Frost says he knows enough of hate to declare that ice too would be great for destruction, and that it “would suffice”; it would be quite enough to finish the world.
| Fire | Ice |
|---|---|
| desire, greed, avarice, lust | hatred, coldness, intolerance |
| conflict, fury | rigidity, insensitivity, indifference |
| Destroys quickly and violently, by burning | Destroys slowly and silently, by freezing |
The message: both are equally fatal. Whether man is consumed by hot passion or frozen by cold hatred, the result is the same; total destruction. Frost warns us that the real danger to the world lies inside the human heart.)
Q.3. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting ideas in the poem?
Ans. The rhyme scheme is: aba abc bcb.
Working through the nine lines: fire (a) – ice (b) – desire (a) – fire (a) – twice (b) – hate (c) – ice (b) – great (c) – suffice (b).
How it brings out the contrasting ideas:
- The rhymes are interlocking: each group of lines carries a sound forward into the next group. The two opposing ideas are therefore never allowed to stand apart; they keep returning and rubbing against each other throughout the poem.
- The ‘a’ rhyme ties fire to desire, and the ‘b’ rhyme ties ice to twice and suffice. In this way the sound itself links each symbol to its meaning: fire is desire, and ice is what would suffice to destroy the world.
- The alternation of the two rhyme sounds (fire… ice… fire… ice) creates a see-saw movement, mirroring the poet’s weighing of one possibility against the other and giving the poem a debate-like quality.
- The ‘b’ rhyme (‘ice’) appears most often and also closes the poem on the word suffice. This gives ice that is, cold hatred, the final and heavier emphasis, which is exactly the poet’s conclusion.
- The short lines and tight rhymes make the poem crisp and epigrammatic; nine lines are enough to deliver a warning that would otherwise need a long sermon.
