Fire and Ice
Robert Frost Written: 1920 • Published: 1920
This poem is in the public domain and may be freely reproduced.
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 know that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice.
Curator's Note
In just nine lines, Frost contemplates the end of the world with terrifying casualness. Will it end in fire (desire) or ice (hatred)? Having 'tasted of desire,' he favors fire, but ice 'would also be great / And would suffice.' The nonchalance is chilling—Frost treats apocalypse like a dinner preference. Written after World War I, as new ideologies and weapons made global destruction imaginable, the poem's compression mirrors its theme: human passions, whether hot or cold, are sufficient to destroy everything. The tight rhyme scheme (desire/fire, ice/suffice/ice) makes catastrophe feel inevitable, locked in like fate.
Related Poems
1922
1915
1915
1938