FIRE AND ICE

Just considering the title, the reader may expect the poem to be about something hot and something cold, or maybe fire and ice can be two symbols which represent the human passion an his indifference. The conjunction between the two opposites is to create a dichotomy.

Taking into consideration the layout the reader can notice it is a poem because of the lines. It is organized in three stanzas with different length of punctuation.

The first two stanzas are composed of two lines: they are couplets, while the last stanza has five lines. Each line begins with a capital letter.

In the first couplet there is a repetition of “some” in each line, to explicate two different opinions about how the word will end: someone says in fire, someone in ice. 

In the second stanza there is a rhyme in couplet (desire-fire) and it communicates to the reader the poet's opinion about the argument introduced in the first two lines. He is in agreement with those who say it will end in fire thanks to the passion and the feelings he has felt in his life.

Both the first two stanza express opinions.

The last stanza is composed of two rhymes (ABABA): “twice-ice-suffice” and “hate-great”. In this stanza the poet says that if the world had to perish twice, it would end in ice thanks to the hate he has felt. This opinion is reinforced by some words such as “hate”, “destruction” and “suffice”. The last five lines are all run-on-line, so they have to be read without any break to understand them. The poet wrote this lines in this way because he wants to communicate to the reader a sense of anxiety and insecurity.

The poem is about how the world would end and at the same time it indirectly refers to human's feelings: fire represent passion, while ice hate, they both take into consideration the end of a relationship.