Fire and Ice FINDING AND ANALYSIS

CHAPTER IV FINDING AND ANALYSIS

4.1 Fire and Ice

Fire and Ice by Robert Frost is just a few lines but portray a huge meaning to his readers. Through literary devices, Frost reveals what will ultimately bring the world to an end. He provides us with two ways that will end the world which are fire and ice. The most noticeable literary device used in Frosts Fire and Ice is metaphor fire with the emotion of desire, and ice with hate. This is one of Robert Frosts most popular poems, published in December 1920 in Harpers Magazine and in 1923 in his Pulitzer prize winning book New Hampshire. Below is the poem: Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what Ive tasted of desire Dari I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice, I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. In the first two lines of Robert Frost’s poem “Fire and Ice”, the narrator presents two options for the end of the world, one by fire and the other by ice. Many scientists, like Harlow Shapley in 1960 in a Science and the Arts claims to have inspired Fire and Ice. Shapley describes an encounter he had with Robert Frost a year before the poem was published in which Frost, noting that Shapley was the astronomer of his day, asks him how the world will end. Universitas Sumatera Utara Shapleys response is that either the sun will explode and incinerate the Earth, or the Earth will somehow escape this fate only to end up slowly freezing in deep space. Below of these two line: Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. Another literary device Frost uses in this poem is symbolism. Fire and ice are also symbols of desire and hate. Fire is a symbol for desire because fire is capable of consuming and destroying everything in its path. The same can be said for desire. Passion is able to consume people and make them become irrational. Sometimes passion is so strong it can lead people to murder. Fire is also capable of killing those in its path, which is why it helps to point out Frosts thoughts that fire could be a destructive force that would destroy the world. However, Frost is really saying that desire and passion could be the end of the world. He does not literally mean that a fire will burn the world. Fire is just used as a symbol for desire which helps the reader see a deeper meaning in the poem. Ice is a symbol for hated. People full of hate tend to be more rigid and cold, and it consumes them to where their lives become frozen and not alive. Here Frost is not saying that the world will literally freeze over, but that people will become so consumed with hate that they will let it freeze in their lives. This helps the reader see the deeper meaning of the true forces at work destroying our world. Frost wants the reader to see that its not forces of nature that will destroy us, but humans themselves will be their own destruction. Frost’s diction in the Universitas Sumatera Utara poem helps point out meaning to his readers. Frost using the antonym words, fire and ice, makes another point to the reader. In lines five through nine Frost completely turns from favouring fire to saying that ice would also be able to destroying the world. However, Frost says this would happen if the world were to perish twice. It almost sounds like a joke, the first time the world perishes it will be by fire, but if it perishes again it will definitely be by ice. The world cannot end twice because once it is gone it is gone. As the poem below: From what Ive 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 say that for destruction ice Is also great And would suffice. Frost did this poem very simple because he wants his words to expand the minds of readers and give some educated thought. Fire and ice are the complete opposite of each other in the literal sense, they can never exist with each other, you can not have fire and ice water exist at the same time without an added component such as oil. The two-element fire and ice are in a never-ending conflict with each other. Based on the above description, moral values that the writer find in this poem symbolized by fire and ice; Frost makes a comparison between them which can make the world to an end. Both of them really have a huge power to destroy this world. If we make this comparison in a society, especially in a relationship of Universitas Sumatera Utara human, as a human we should control our desire anger and hate. If we can not control it, every human in this world will have bad relationship and no peace that effect fighting and separate from one to another. Related to this poem, moral positivism also comes with the same idea, related to this poem because, God forbids human to hate, to fight, and to kill each other. 4.2 Neither Out Far nor in Deep The poem Neither Out Far nor in Deep is using a simple image and figure. Frost does not want to make difficult comprehension to the readers through this poem. This poem is written in 1936. The people along the sand All turn and look one way. They turn their back on the land. They look at the sea all day. As long as it takes to pass A ship keeps raising its hull; The wetter ground like glass Reflects a standing gull The land may vary more; But wherever the truth may be-- The water comes ashore, Air And the people look at the sea. They cannot look out far. They cannot look in deep. but when was that ever a bar To any watch they keep? The first stanza talks about the people that look the land. They are standing at the seashore because they are looking for a way to get back to their land; actually they have vision and find one way, after they look at the sea all day. Universitas Sumatera Utara The phrase look at the sea all day,” means that they seduced by its deep, dark, mysterious depths by the sea itself. They turn their back on the land, the narrator explains that the people turn from the varying sights of land towards the distances of water, representing mysteries they hope to grasp. Below of this poem: The people along the sand All turn and look one way. They turn their back on the land. They look at the sea all day. The second stanza, the people are walking along the way. When they pass it, they still see a ship in the sea. But they just can see the hull of the ship. And they then, still continue their journey to the land through the way. The way they walk by is wet because of the sea water. Their journey through the way reflects as a standing gull which waits for its freedom. As long as it takes to pass A ship keeps raising its hull; The wetter ground like glass Reflects a standing gull The word “Gulls” in this poem explains that the people are asleep to their human responsibilities. Frost here views these people in a state of detachment, as a great mass with no individuality who focus on mysteries they cannot comprehend. By the third stanza, however, the word becomes intense indeed. This is partly because the looking is suddenly associated with a very large question, “wherever the truth may be,” and partly because “the people” seem forever fixed in their looking: the last two lines of the stanza seem to say a fact of nature that the water comes ashore and will come forever, so it is a fact of nature that “the Universitas Sumatera Utara people” look at the sea and will look forever. The word “sea” means that the people should know, the world is wide, and no one knows life even his own life. Below is the third stanza: The land may vary more; But wherever the truth may be – The water comes ashore, And the people look at the sea. The speaker remarks that the land may vary more: But wherever the truth may be- The water comes ashore, and the people at the sea. This suggests that the speaker can see things the people are looking for, which are readily available, yet the people are too ignorant to see them as they are too busy concerning themselves with the unknown. At the end of this poem the speaker remarks on how the people cannot look out far nor in deep and seems to be criticising peoples ability to understand the great mysteries of humankind, yet cannot introspect and understand themselves either. But then contradicts himself remarking that there was a bar to any watch they keep, seeming that he accepts that they are unlikely to change, and that he has little right to criticise them. They cannot look out far. They cannot look in deep. But when was that ever a bar To any what they keep? The sentence “they cannot look out far; they cannot look in deep”, it states that there is a limitation for human. It is enough clear that Frost wants to remind the people in the world have their limits. Because of that, as a human we should wise enough to think and also wise in action in our life. Universitas Sumatera Utara Frost also wants to remind us, that we are a human looking for the truth in our life. According to the writer the word “land” in the poem interprets faith. It is clear for us that Frost wants us to back to our faith particularly when we want to find the truth. The moral value that the writer gets from this poem is about patience and belief. We may not ask meaningless questions but try to understand everything that happen, God created world in such a compassionate way and in such a good condition, it is only us who can not understand what God wants with us. Belief that God only want good things, never belief that God hate us, God is what we belief. The more you do the better you will get.

4.3 Out, Out