poetry anaylais #2

poetry analysis #2
Neal Chapman

Fire and Ice
Title: the title of this poem is supposed to confuse the reader, while adding a little bit of excitement. Fire is a exciting thing to see, but the clash between fire and ice is s spectacle. also fire and ice can't ever mix so a poem with the name fire and ice is slightly confusing.

Paraphrase:  the poet is talking about the end of the world in either an Armageddon, nuclear way, or in a slow way such as another ice age. 

Connotation: i think the the fire is a metaphor for a nuclear bomb. Robert frost lived during the time of the second world war and could see what the nuclear bomb was capable of doing. I also think that the ice is a metaphor for another ice age, even during the time that frost lived, they knew about the ice ages. he knew that an ice age would be able to destroy a large amount of life on this earth.

Tone: the tone of this poem is that of apathy. Frost does not really care how the world ends, all he knows is that i will end.

shift: after the favor fire line, the tone shifts from a slightly more upbeat tone, to a depressing tone. ice is a slow killer and he knows that if the world were to end in ice, everyone would suffer a lot more pain. at least if the world ended in fire, it would be almost instantaneous.

Title: the more i look at the title, the more i think that the poet is truly trying to confuse the reader. there is now way that fire and ice can be next to each other for any sort of time, one would destroy the other, so putting them together with the word "and" makes it seem like the poet is truly trying to connect two things that just cannot be connected.

Theme: this poem is about the destruction of the earth. this would include the poet and everyone he knows and loves to perish. the thing is, is that he doesn't really seem to care all that much. he just wants to let it happen.