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Fire and Ice

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Submitted By bdh428
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Brett Hall
Professor Armstrong
English 113 M
17 November 2011
Fire and Ice
Frost loaded an unbelievable amount of meaning into hos poem fire and ice. He brings up the highly debated topic of how the world is going to end. Two ways that he thinks the world will end is through fire and ice. Both fire and ice have deeper metaphorical meanings than just on the literal meaning of the poem. Fire can be used in the literal meaning of the word. In the second line of the poem Frost talks about how the world could end in fire. This topic is an extremely well researched thought and has a very real possibility of that happening. One way that this could happen is if another world war breaks out, a war that would be a war unlike any other that has ever been waged. We have technology now that is nothing compared to the types that we had in the first two world wars, now we have the power to destroy the world many times over. Fire could be a nuclear blast that would purge the land in a fiery explosion, covering what Frost is talking about in his poem about the world ending in fire. Also some scientists predict the end of the world would come from sun ether from a solar flare or from it expanding and engulfing the earth. This enlarging of the sun would it the description of the fiery destruction of the earth. Fire can also be passionate emotions like rage. The bible tells us to stay away from anger in psalms it says “Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret-it leads only to evil” (Psalm 37:8). This psalm warns us of the dangers of giving into our anger and wrath assuring that the path of anger will only lead to evil. Evil could be what Frost is talking about for the end of the world, a fiery evil leading to the end of everything that we know. The end of the world does not have to be an end where there is no more life left on the world; rather it could be the end of an age as we know it. Evil destroys the soul and mind of whoever harbors it in their mind. In the book of James, James discusses the issue of anger. He states “My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires” (James 1:19-20). One of the jobs of a christian is to bring the glory of God to the world, and when we have anger it does not bring the righteousness that God wants us to show and have. Anger only destroys it does nothing to build. The effect of anger does nothing positive or good so it brings no advance to the kingdom of God. Another one of the fiery evils that could destroy the world is desire and lust. Lust and desire are major sins that destroy a person. In 1 Corinthians 6:18 (ESV), it says “Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin[a] a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body.” The destruction of the world could be the elimination of all morals that the world has now. We can already see the corruption that lust has caused through the media. The media is so focused on the immoral side of the world, like sex, drugs, etc., which is causing it to become a natural acceptance of the immorality in the world. This acceptance is an evil that harbors is the minds of people who lust and desire. This evil is dangerous because we have become so desensitized to the lust and desire around us, and within us, that the evil just sits there growing and becoming more and more rooted. This acceptance of growing evil is what is going wrong with the world. We should hate what the world is now but instead many have been desensitized to the corruption that is slowly creeping in and taking over the world. If this happen the as it was mentioned above the world could end as we know it. The second way that Frost says the earth could be destroyed is through ice. There are theories saying if the Antarctic ice shelf broke off it would send waves measuring over a kilometer high across the globe. These waves would flood for miles inland on all the coast cities causing irreparable damages across the globe. Also this ice shelf entering the water would cause the water to rise more than 4 meters also flooding the coasts across the globe. This is a literal look at how ice could destroy the world; Frost however, likely uses a metaphorical meaning of the poem. Ice could be a metaphor for apathy and hard hearts that will be formed. In Mark 8:17 it Jesus talks about how the disciples’ hearts had become hardened “Aware of their discussion, Jesus asked them: ‘Why are you talking about having no bread? Do you still not see or understand? Are your hearts hardened?’”. The disciples saw the miracles that Jesus had performed but they did not apply it. They were thinking in the way of the world not in the way that God, he would provide for them when they needed it. They stopped thinking about God and when they did that their hearts started to harden toward him. This causes us to become resistant to learn the good news and the gospel. This resistance is brought upon by our human nature in that we are creatures of habit and if we make experiencing God a habit it will not hold any more meaning for us anymore. But we can use the hardening to our advantage if we keep our thoughts on God, we will harden ourselves to the corrupted world outside us. Ice can also mean the iciness of hate inside of someone. Hate is a extremely strong emotion, in Proverbs 10:12 it says “Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all offenses.” Hate is not worth it because it is a cold emotion that people usually don’t see but when they do see the hate it causes strife. The cold emotions are the most dangerous emotions because they can remain hidden for a long time where they fester and grow more powerful. The hidden emotions are constantly affecting thought process and actions, even if there are unaware, will cause the strife to become even more destructive to the world. This strife that could cause the destruction of the world would be from the icy feeling of hate. There are the fiery desires that cause destruction in their wake, and then there are the icy inner feelings that sow the seeds of destruction and evil silently. Both have a chance of being the end of the world, each with their different ways. The poem has deeper meanings other than the literal meaning for fire and ice. There are metaphorical meanings for the two options for how the world will end.

Work cited
Frost, R. (n.d.). Fire and Ice. In http://www.ketzle.com/frost/fireice.htm. Retrieved November 16, 2011
Holy Bible. Nashville: Holman Bible, 2009. Print.

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