Fire And Ice Poem Reading

1920 poem written by Robert Frost

Commencement appearance in Harper'southward, December, 1920.

Fire and Ice
past Robert Frost
First published in	Harper's Magazine
Subject(s)	Want, hate
Meter	iambic tetrameter and iambic dimeter
Rhyme scheme	ABA ABC BCB
Publication date	1920
Lines	9

Burn down and Water 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 information technology had to perish twice,
I remember I know enough of hate
To say that for devastation ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

A reading of "Fire and Ice"

"Fire and Ice" is a popular poem by Robert Frost that discusses the terminate of the world, likening the elemental strength of fire with the emotion of want, and ice with detest. Published in Dec 1920 in Harper's Mag ^[1] and in 1923 in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book New Hampshire, "Fire and Ice" is ane of Frost's best-known and almost anthologized poems.^[2]

Inspiration

Co-ordinate to one of Frost's biographers, "Burn down and Ice" was inspired past a passage in Canto 32 of Dante'due south Inferno, in which the worst offenders of hell (the traitors) are submerged up to their necks in ice while in a fiery hell: "a lake and then bound with ice, / It did not look like h2o, but like a drinking glass...right clear / I saw, where sinners are preserved in ice."^[3]

In an anecdote he recounted in 1960 in a "Scientific discipline and the Arts" presentation, the prominent astronomer Harlow Shapley claims to take inspired "Fire and Ice".^[2] Shapley describes an run across he had with Frost a year earlier the verse form was published in which Frost, noting that Shapley was the astronomer of his mean solar day, asked him how the globe will end. Shapley responded that either the sun will explode and incinerate the Earth, or the Earth volition somehow escape this fate only to cease up slowly freezing in deep space. Shapley was surprised at seeing "Burn down and Water ice" in print a yr subsequently, and referred to it as an example of how science tin can influence the creation of art, or clarify its meaning.^[4]

Mode and structure

The poem is written in a single ix-line stanza, which greatly narrows in the last two lines. The poem's meter is an irregular mix of iambic tetrameter and dimeter, and the rhyme scheme (which is ABA ABC BCB) suggests but departs from the rigorous pattern of Dante's terza rima.

Analysis

Marveled at for its compactness, "Burn and Ice" signaled for Frost "a new style, tone, manner, [and] grade." Its casual tone masks the serious question information technology poses to the reader.^[5]

Pinch of Dante's Inferno

In a 1999 article, John N. Serio claims that the verse form is a compression of Dante's Inferno. He draws a parallel between the 9 lines of the poem with the ix rings of Hell, and notes that, like the downwardly funnel of the rings of Hell, the poem narrows considerably in the final ii lines. Additionally, the rhyme scheme—ABA ABC BCB—he remarks, is similar to the one Dante invented for Inferno.^[five]

Frost's diction further highlights the parallels between Frost's discussion of desire and detest with Dante's outlook on sins of passion and reason with sensuous and physical verbs describing desire and loosely recalling the characters Dante met in the upper rings of Hell: "taste" (recalling the Glutton), "hold" (recalling the adulterous lovers), and "favor" (recalling the hoarders). In contrast, hate is discussed with verbs of reason and thought ("I retrieve I know.../To say...").^[5]

Musical adaptations

"Burn and Ice"^[6] by the American composer Andrea Clearfield,^[7] a choral cantata using the poem'due south lyrics as libretto.
"Burn and Ice"^[viii] by the American composer Fred Lerdahl,^[9] a vocal arrangement of the poem.
"Burn down and Ice"^[10] by the American composer Kirke Mechem,^[11] one of the choral settings in his opus "American Trio."

In popular culture

The fantasy author George R. R. Martin has said that the title of his A Song of Ice and Burn down series, which was later adjusted into the Game of Thrones television serial, was partly inspired past the poem.^[12]
The verse form is the epigraph of Stephenie Meyers' book, Eclipse, of the Twilight Saga. It is besides read past Kristen Stewart's character, Bella Swan, at the beginning of the film Eclipse.

References

^ Frost, Robert. December 1920. "Burn down and Ice," A Grouping of Poems by Robert Frost. Harper'southward Mag. p. 67.
^ ^a ^b Fagan, Deirdre J. (2007). Critical companion to Robert Frost: a literary reference to his life and work. Infobase. pp. 115–16. ISBN978-0-8160-6182-2.
^ Myers, Jeffrey (2001). Robert Frost: A Biography. Replica Books. ISBN978-0-7351-0140-one. Quoted in "On 'Fire and Ice'".
^ Hansen, Tom (2000). "Frost's 'Fire and Ice'". The Explicator. 59 (i): 27–30. doi:10.1080/00144940009597068. S2CID 162244195. Partly quoted in "On 'Fire and Ice'".
^ ^a ^b ^c Serio, John N. (1999). "Frost'due south 'Fire and Water ice' and Dante's 'Inferno'". The Explicator. 57 (4): 27–30. doi:ten.1080/00144949909596879. Partly quoted in "On 'Burn and Water ice'".
^ "Burn and Ice". www.andreaclearfield.com . Retrieved 2021-05-07 .
^ "Bio". world wide web.andreaclearfield.com . Retrieved 2021-05-07 .
^ Fire and Ice - Fred Lerdahl, archived from the original on 2021-12-14, retrieved 2021-05-07
^ "Biography". Fred Lerdahl . Retrieved 2021-05-07 .
^ "Kirke Mechem - Composer". www.kirkemechem.com . Retrieved 2021-05-07 .
^ "Kirke Mechem - Composer". world wide web.kirkemechem.com . Retrieved 2021-05-07 .
^ "'Game of Thrones' Author George R.R. Martin Reveals 'Winds of Wintertime' Details and More". Young Adult Book Reviewer. 10 Oct 2012. Retrieved 2013-12-24 .