The poems “Fire and Ice” by Robert Frost and “Erosion” by EJ Pratt shows contrast they have with one another. At first glance we see it immediately with the rhyme schemes and meter of the poems. In his career as a poet, Robert Frost, wrote poems with traditional meters, while Frost wrote "Fire and Ice" in iambic tetrameter (in lines 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7) and iambic di-meter (in lines 2, 8, and 9). However, this is not the case for Erosion though, as EJ Pratt believed that “rhyme and meter do not make a poem” as he wrote Erosion in stable meter; writing it in iambic tetrameter.
Although both poems revolve around the relations between nature and humanity, they exhibit some differences throughout each poem. “Erosion” shows us how the sea took a thousand years to erode a cliff while a tempest at sea took an hour to make the same erosions carve out on a woman’s face because of her sorrow after realizing her husband’s life was taken away by the tempest at sea. Contrarily, Fire and Ice outlines the fate of the world and mankind itself, reflecting if it is more likely to be destroyed by fire or ice, with Frost concluding to us that the world could end in both fire and ice. This can also be seen because of the fact that Frost wrote this after WW1 and making reference to back in the day where the atomic bomb destroyed and killed thousands of people leaving a devastation that was felt for decades after. Frost goes into a more emotional side, associating desire with fire and hatred with ice. Metaphorically speaking, the world and mankind can be recognized as a metaphor for a relationship. Too much fire and passion between them can quickly consume and hinder the relationship, while cold indifference and hate can be equally destructive to the relationship. Looking back at each poem, it shows the contrast between both poems, “Fire and Ice” shows that nature can be overturned and destroyed simply with imbalances to it, whilst “Erosion” shows us that nature has total control over us and we are helpless to fight back to the disasters nature tosses.
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