Analyse the following lines: Some say the world
will end in fire
Some say in ice.
Answers
Explanation:
Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
The opening two lines of "Fire and Ice" establish two important aspects of the overall poem. Firstly, they make it clear that this poem is a work of eschatology—writing about the end of the world. Secondly, they establish the poem's conversational tone, which is deliberately a little at odds with the gravity of the subject matter.
The first two lines also set up the poem's key antithesis, as the speaker considers whether "fire" or "ice" will bring about the end of the world. At this early stage in the poem, the symbolic meaning of these two elements is not yet apparent. Indeed, the speaker talks in very simple language, almost as if gossiping about someone or something: "Some say." This is all about luring the reader into a false sense of security, before the poem unleashes the disarming depth of its thought.
The lines are balanced by anaphora, the two "some says" allowing for the antithesis to be established—on one side there is fire, and on the other ice. The laidback tone masks that the end of the world is actually one of mankind's longest and most hotly contested debates: people have been predicting the end of the world pretty much since it began (or since the human race began). What's interesting about the set-up here is that, despite the casual tone, the poem has already smuggled in a rather bleak idea. Though the speaker presents two choices, they both essentially amount to the same thing: the end of the world. There is no third option in which the world is not destroyed.
The poem hasn't yet drawn the link between these apocalyptic scenarios and humanity's likely role in them, but as that becomes clear throughout the poem the sense that humankind is fated to destroy itself grows stronger and scarier. The casual tone could also be considered ironic, in that it doesn't really match the subject matter—perhaps suggesting that, though it's a hot topic, arrogant humankind doesn't really believe the end of the world is coming (not any time soon, at least).
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Answer:
will end by space black holes.