"Fire and Ice"

Out of the poems that we read by Robert Frost, my favorite was actually “Fire and Ice.” I also enjoyed the activity that we did in class today on some of his other poems, so I decided to perform some of those same searches for “Fire and Ice”.

We talked briefly about a couple interpretations of the poem in class. One included the idea that fire and ice represents the spectrum of human emotions, from desire to hate. These emotions are strong enough to cause destruction and ruin lives. Another was that the fire and ice represent the decent into “Dante’s Inferno”. Those in the earlier Cantos suffer in eternal fire and those who are considered the worse sinners suffer in ice.

I found numerous cites that analyze and interpret “Fire and Ice,” including Wikipedia, which suggests that Frost was in fact inspired by “Dante’s Inferno” and used elements from the story in the poem. As my group discovered in class, there are Spark Notes on “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” that are interesting to read for interpretation of the poem. There are also Spark Notes on “Fire and Ice” that provide a version of the poem, discusses style and form, and provides commentary and analysis of the poem. I actually really liked this version of analysis because it talked about the powerful way that Frost utilized such a small amount of wording. They did not offer any of the interpretations that we discussed in class however, or any further interpretation of their own. Finally, the Poetry Foundationm, at http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/173527, provides a version of the poem read aloud that is interesting to listen to. This site also offers a lengthy and thorough biography of Frost that would be helpful for any research paper’s that may include his writing.

The most creative interpretation of the poem, I felt, was by Gary Bachlund who composed music (part of which is included above) to the poem’s lyrics. Bachlund states that “[t]he triadic polytonality suggests the discussion between "fire" and "ice," with each fitting into a larger scheme of things. The first two bars indicate the differences of opinion as the lower triads descend by half-steps over the upper triads' movement in whole steps. The setting ends with a restatement of the poem's beginning and then its title, ‘fire and ice’” (http://www.bachlund.org/Fire_and_Ice.htm).