FIRE AND ICE

Just considering the title, the reader may expect the poem to be about two opposites conditions of the human soul, the passion and the indifference.

The conjunction between the two connects two opposites, to create a dichotomy.

The reader can understand the text is a poem because it is organised in three stanzas with different length by punctuation.

The first two stanzas have the same length, they are couplets, while the last one has five lines.

The first couplet connects its two lines by the repetition of “Some say”, used to underline two different opinions about how the world would end.

Some think the world would end in fire, others think in ice.

The second one connects its lines by the rhyme “desire – fire” and it communicates the poet's idea about the question introduced in the first lines. He agrees with the ones who choose the fire, as he had tried it from the passions he had met during his life.

The two couplets are connected together because they both express opinions.

In the last stanza the topic discussed is the ice, that the poet takes into consideration if he has to perish twice. This idea about ice is reinforced by some words that have in themselves the noun ice (twice, suffice).

The ice is connected with destruction and it is generated from the hate the speaking voice talks about in the sixth line. He can choose between ice and fire because he had known both passion and hate, which generate the two opposites.

The last five lines are all run-on-line and they have to be read without any break between them. This happens because the poet wants to communicate anxiety and a sense of insecurity to the reader, that takes his passions into consideration to understand if they are true or fake.

The poem talks about how the world would end but at the same time it introduces a reflection about the human passions and the relationships with the others.

Fire represents passion while ice hate; they both talk about the end of a relationship with someone.