Fire and Ice

A contemporary of W. B. Yeats, Ezra Pound, Wallace Stevens, and T. S. Eliot, Robert Frost’s work relies on cognitive order, dramatic tension, and extreme clarity, which many readers dismiss. While Yeats regarded Frost’s work as some of the best to emerge from America, Pound was critical of Frost’s work, deeming it too sincere. In turn, Frost became critical of Pound’s influence at the time. After World War I, Frost suffered from illness, financial loss, and the death of his friend and fellow poet Edward Thomas, who died in the war in the trenches of France. The years of hardship made Frost’s life painful. Frost also believed that art was the only true way for humankind to understand its own affairs, and he admired people who stood out distinctively in history.

Unlike much of Frost’s work, “Fire and Ice” does not have a pastoral setting; he often used rural settings as metaphors for his philosophical views of the world. Instead, “Fire and Ice” captures Frost’s dark view of not only himself, but a view also influenced by his suspicions of the social activism evident in New Deal policies. A staunch Democrat, Frost felt that the liberalism of the time lacked people of deep conviction, believing that taking a stance in arguments was representative of one’s character.