Class 10 English First Flight Poem 2 Fire and Ice NCERT Solutions

Fire and Ice Class 10 NCERT Solutions

Thinking about the Poem (Page 15)

Question 1: There are many ideas about how the world will ‘end’. Do you think the world will end someday? Have you ever thought what would happen if the sun got so hot that it ‘burst’, or grew colder and colder?

Answer:

There are several theories about how the world might come to an end. I believe that the world will end someday because everything that has a beginning also has an end, and this applies to the world as well. If the Sun becomes extremely hot and bursts, all life on Earth would perish instantly, as the planet would be unable to withstand such intense heat. On the other hand, if the Sun gradually grows colder, life on Earth would also come to an end due to the absence of sunlight. We know that sunlight is a vital source of energy for all the planets in the solar system, and without it, survival would be impossible.

Question 2: For Frost, what do ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ stand for? Here are some ideas:

Answer: ‘Fire’ stands for greed, avarice, lust, conflict and fury. ‘Ice’ stands for cruelty, intolerance, rigidity, insensitivity, coldness, indifference and hatred.

Question 3:

What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting ideas in the poem?

Answer:

The rhyme scheme of the poem is: a, b, a, a, b, c, b, c, b.

This rhyme scheme helps in projecting the contrasting ideas of ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ that are presented in the poem. The poet Frost mentions both fire and ice as the probable ends of the planet Earth.

He talks about how ‘fire’ represents desire and might be a possible cause of the end of the world. The poet also mentions ‘ice’ in the poem to symbolize the coldness and indifference that people might have towards one another, which will be a reason good enough to end the world.

In the second stanza of the poem, the poet says that he knows enough about hate in this world and is sure that even destruction through hatred (ice) would be sufficient and adequate to bring about an end to the planet Earth.