(Fire and Ice 58) In the poem's nine short lines, Frost gives the possibility of two different versions of the same catastrophe. (Light 113) The fact that the world will end is not in question, only the manner of destruction remains to be determined. In his poem "Fire and Ice", Robert Frost compares and contrasts the two destructive forces: fire and ice. In the first two lines of the poem, he presents two options for the end of the world: "Some say the world will end in fire, Some say in ice." I feel like he uses the term fire, not to directly refer to a burning flame, but to represent the punishment that something can inflict on an object. It presents the image of the intense pain that a burn can inflict, as well as the extraordinary rapidity with which it occurs. Fire causes enormous damage to almost everything in a matter of seconds. It could also simply represent a violent ending. The End of the World in Ice seems to present the image of a slower, numbing effect. I feel like he's using ice to symbolize a deliberate, almost imperceptible change that ultimately brings about the destruction of