NCERT Solutions Class 10, English, First Flight, Poetry, Chapter-1, Fire and Ice.
Thinking about the Poem
1. There are many ideas about how the world will ‘end’. Do you think the world will end some day? Have you ever thought what would happen if the sun got so hot that it ‘burst’, or grew colder and colder?
Solution:
There are definitely many ideas about how the world will ‘end’. I do believe that the world will end some day as anything that has a beginning will have an end. This stands true for the world also, if the Sun got so hot that it burst, the whole of the Earth would perish immediately as no part of the Earth can bear the heat of that intensity. But if the Sun grew colder and colder, everything will come to an end as without sunlight, life will end.
2. For Frost, what do ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ stand for? Here are some ideas:
greed avarice cruelty lust
conflict fury intolerance rigidity insensitivity coldness indifference hatred |
Solution:
‘Fire’ stands for greed, avarice, lust, conflict and fury. ‘Ice’ stands for cruelty, intolerance, rigidity, insensitivity, coldness, indifference and hatred.
3. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting ideas in the poem?
Solution:
The rhyme scheme of the poem is as follows:
1st stanza: a b a a
2nd stanza: a b a b a
The contrasting ideas of ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ are presented using this rhyme scheme. He mentions that both fire and ice are probable ends of this world. While he talks about how fire represents desire and can therefore be a cause of the end of the world, he also mentions ice in between to symbolise that the coldness and indifference towards one another will also be enough to end the world. In the second stanza, he says that he knows of enough hate in the world to be sure that even destruction through ice would be sufficient to bring about the end of the world.