Robert Frost Fire and Ice的解析 (2).doc

Robert Frost Fire and Ice的解析Type of Work .Fire and Ice is a lyric poem of nine lines centering on destructive emotions. Publication .Fire and Ice first appeared in the December 1920 issue of Harpers. In 1923, it appeared in New Hampshire, a collection of Frosts poems published in New York by Henry Holt & Co. Meter .Frost wrote Fire and Ice in iambic tetrameter (lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) and iambic dimeter (lines 2, 8, and 9). In iambic tetrameter, a line has four pairs of syllables, each pair with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. In iambic dimeter, a line has two pairs of syllables, each pair with an unstressed syllable followed by a stressed syllable. The first two lines of the poem demonstrate the tetrameter-dimeter format. .1.2.3.4. Some SAY.|.the WORLD,.|.will END.|.in FIRE .1.2 Some SAY.|.iin ICE.Rhyme .The poem contains three units of end rhyme. The first unit consists of lines 1, 3, and 4. The second consists of lines 2, 5, 7, and 9. The third consists of lines 6 and 8. All of the end rhymes are masculine. . . Text of the Poem and Notes Some say the world1 will end in fire, Some say in ice. From what Ive tasted of desire2 I hold with those who favor fire. But if it had to perish twice,.5 I think I know enough of hate To say that for destruction ice3 Is also great And would suffice.4 1.world: Frost appears to mean the world of an individualthat is, his lifeas well as civilization itself. 2.desire: Desire, or passion, is considered a hot emotion. Hence, the punishment for yielding to forbidden desire is fire. For further information, see Dantes Influence, below. 3.See Dantes Influence, below. 4.Note that the word suffice contains the word ice. . . Figures of Speech Alliteration Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice. I hold with those who favor fire.Anaphora Some say the world1 will end in fire, Some say in ice.Paradox But if it had to perish twiceDantes Influence .Frost derived inspiration for Fire and Ice from Inferno, one of the three divisions of Dantes monumental epic poem, The Divine Comedy. .In Inferno, Dante and his guide, the Latin poet Virgil, witness the punishment of souls in hell, constructed in nine circlesone atop the otherin the shape of a cone. Those who committed sins of desire, such as lust and greed, suffer the pain of fire and other tortures. (Note lines 3 and 4 of Frosts poem). These sinners are confined in the upper circles. Those who committed the sin of betrayal are confined to the bottom circle, the ninth, in a frozen lake. Among them are Judas and Satan. Frosts poem substitutes hatred for betrayal as the cardinal offense that entombs souls in everlasting ice. (Note lines 6-9 of Frosts poem.) .Frosts poem contains nine lines, an apparent representation of the nine circles of Dantes hell. Is Fire and Ice a Great Poem? .As noted above under Dantes Influence, Frosts poem alludes to Dantes The Divine Comedyin particular, to the sins and punishments of the souls in hell. In the Inferno section of The Divine Comedy, Dante places those who yielded to unrestrained desire in the upper levels of hell. He places those who committed what he regards as the most serious sin, betrayal, in the lake of ice in lowest level of hell. Judas and Satan are among the traitors confined to this region. However, in alluding to Dante, Frost substitutes hatred for betrayal as the offense that condemns its perpetrator to the ultimate punishment: imprisonment in the lake of ice. At the same time, he says hatred and desire are equally condemnable. If he is right, the haters would be in the same circle as those who committed sins of unbridled desire. One may fairly argue that Frosts substitution of hatred for betrayal distorts and weakens the allusion to Dante. Moreover, the reference to two different groups in lines 1 and 2 (the first saying the world ends in fire and the second saying it ends in ice) likewise seems amiss, for in both cases Frost is alluding to a single source, Dante. Finally, Frost appears to misfire when he parallels hate (line 6) with desire (line 3) as types of destructive behavior, or sins. Hate, of course, is destructive and sinful. Desire per se is not. There is nothing wrong with desiring a spouse, a better job, or a new car. What Frost is attempting to damn is inordinate and immoral desirefor money, power, sex, drink, food, etc. .Do these apparent faux pas mean that the poem as a whole is not the masterpiece that Frost aficionados say it is? The answer to that question depends on how much license the reader is willing to grant the author. Theme .The central theme of Fire and Ice is that human emotions are destructive when allowed to run amok. They can destroy a person morally; they can destroy him mentally and physically. Not frequently, unbridled emotionssuch as those of an Adolf Hitlercan destroy entire countries and even threaten to destroy civilization itself. . Author Information .Robert Frost (1874-1963) was born in San Francisco, California, where he spent his childhood. In 1885, after his father died of tuberculosis, the Frosts moved to Massachusetts. There, Robert graduated from high school, sharing top honors with a student he would later marry, Elinor White. .Frost attended Dartmouth and Harvard, married Miss White in 1895, worked farms, and taught school. In his spare time, he wrote poetry. Disappointed with the scant attention his poems received, he moved with his wife to Great Britain to present his work to readers there. Publishers liked his work and printed his first book of poems, A Boys Will, in 1913, and a second poetry collection, North of Boston, in 1914. The latter book was publ