Cause Love is Bad and Hate is Good.

As I decide where to continue from my reading plan, I have chosen to read several poems this week. One that I chose was Fire and Ice by Robert Frost. The main idea in this poem, is the idea of love verses hate. The author says that he agrees with those who prefer fire first, but then continues to say that if the world had to end a second time ice would be just as great as fire. When translated, he is saying how hate and love are similar and how they can both destroy us.

When I read this poem for the very first time, I didn't know what the author was trying to say when he said ice was just as great as fire. I kept asking myself how love could in any way be bad. Then rereading it this week, I stopped on the line "from what I've tasted of desire, I hold with those who favor fire". When you desire something, you really want it, because it is something you don't already have. Sometimes when we want something, we don't stop to consider the affects of our actions and we just go for what we want. That is just as bad as being mean when it hurts others, and is sometimes worse because we usually do it for ourselves, making us selfish.

The second half of the poem has always been my favorite part. The author puts the idea of hatred into a positive perspective. It made me think if hate could be good, just as love could be bad. When hate exists in an environment, it is natural to think to bring it down. Having hate exist, however, can help drive people to stand up to it. In the sentence "to say that for destruction ice, is also great" shows how the poem focuses on the destruction from ice, but I this poem helped me see that although, yes, it can be destructive it can also help in such a good way.

Something I have always loved from this poem, and that I had never thought of until this moment, is the deeper meaning that it gives. It almost says how you can choose how you want to end your life, emotionally. In fire or in ice, in love or in hate. Normally you would think love would be the best way, but this poem shows how it might not always be.

Fire and Ice

By Robert Frost

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I've 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.