Fire and Ice

 

 

 

  

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.

~Robert Frost~ 

 

   Robert Frost's poem" Fire and Ice" seems appropriate given the images that have been captured. It has been many years since I last read this poem, and  metaphorically "Fire and Ice"  can be read on many differnt levels. What seems to me that Frost is saying is that the two extremes are completely opposite, and extremely different, yet both are the same. It is like having two things you love that seem so different you can't put them together, only apart. It says to me whatever path one chooses to take; which ever you chose to taste it will always end up the same. At some point, life will end, and you will be at the same place you would of ended up to begin with.

   Frost is a master at making simple words say profound things. Here, he takes a slightly dark musing, and converts it into a telling insight into the destructive power of desire and hate, fire

and ice respectively. The metaphor is apt, and powerful just as fire or ice may one day destroy the external, physical world; desire and hate can destroy the internal, spiritual one. It's interesting to see how this poem works not so much by what it says, but by what it doesn't say.