Fire and Ice – Analysis

Taking the title into consideration, I think about two different elements and concepts: fire, which is hot and stays for love, passion, life, and ice, which is cold and stays for death, sadness.

The layout shows the poem is arranged into 9 lines, organized into three stanzas of different length, separated by the punctuation.

The text reports two different opinions: in the first part, the poet says that the world could end in fire, while in the second part he thinks it could end even in ice: indeed, he has a double opinion.

In the first stanza, the poet distinguishes two different points-of-view: the first is supported by who thinks the world will end in fire, and the second by who thinks it will end in ice.

The repetition of the expression “some say”, at the beginning of each of the two lines, attracts the attention of the reader on the different opinions.

In the second stanza, the poet immediately expresses his own opinion, basing on his life experiences: he thinks the world will end in fire.

Both the lines three and four end in “-ire”: this creates rhythm and connects the two lines, since “fire” and “desire” are included even in the same semantic field of passion/love.

In the third stanza, the poet tells that, if he had to perish twice, he will have enough hate to say that world could end even in ice: so, the poet expresses his double opinion.