Q. There are many ideas about how the world will ‘end’. Do you think the world will end some day? Have you ever thought what would happen if the sun goes so hot that it ‘burst’ or grew colder and colder?
Ans. There are many ideas about how the world will end. The poet thinks that both fire and ice can destroy our external, physical world. If the sun goes so hot that it ‘burst’ or grew colder and colder, the world will end because sun is the main source of energy. However, there is only a remote possibility of such a thing happening.
Q. For Frost, what do ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ stand for? Here are some ideas:
greed, advice, cruelty, lust, conflict, fury, intolerance, rigidity, insensitivity, coldness, indifference, hatred
Ans. ‘Fire’ stands for ‘greed’, ‘conflict’, ‘avarice’, ‘fury’, ‘lust’ and ‘Ice’ stands for ‘insensitivity’, ‘coldness’, ‘intolerance’, ‘indifference’, ‘rigidity’ and ‘hatred’.
Q. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting ideas in the poem?
Ans. The rhyme scheme is: a b a a, bc bcb. The rhyme scheme brings out the contrasting ideas beautifully: ‘Fire’ rhymes with ‘desire’ ‘twice’ rhymes with ‘ice’ ‘ice’ rhymes with ‘suffice’ ‘Fire’ and ‘Ice’ have both been described as destructive forces. The poem is a very good example of bringing two vastly opposite (‘fire’ and ‘ice’) ideas together.