Chapter 2 – Fire and Ice Questions and Answers: NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English (First Flight (Poetry))

Ques: 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.

Ques: 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 bringing out the contrasting ideas of ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ presented in the poem. The poet mentions that both fire and ice are probable ends of this world. He talks about how fire represents desire and can, therefore, be a cause of the end of the world. Frost also mentions ice in between to symbolize that the coldness and indifference towards one another will 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 the ice . would be sufficient to bring about the end of the world.