Fire and Ice (poem)

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"Fire and Ice" is one of Robert Frost's most popular poems, published in 1923 in his book New Hampshire. It discusses the end of the world, likening the elemental force of fire with the human emotion of desire and hate with ice. On the whole the poem appears to be very down beat, this underpinned by the relatively short length of the poem, the use of monosyliabic words and the subjunctive ending "And would suffice". The poem draws in the reader and allows them to make up their own mind about the themes that are being discussed, this is apparent firstly by the use of the indefinate pronoun "some" and secondly by the repetition of the same indefinate pronoun.

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor 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.