Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.
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This is my all time favorite poem. I first read it in school in the mid 1960’s. Just a few years before the world had barely survived the Cuban missle; crisis. The Cold War was heating up, and the US was just starting to send toops to Vietnam. It was a time of fire and ice. We lived under the threat of nuclear war with the Soviet Union while we fought an escalating war with the communists in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos (the fire). At the same time, the world was splitting into 2 camps — East (communist) versus West (non-communist). The fear, dislike, and hatred between the two sides shapped our world (the ice). Frost’s poem perfectly described not only the world, but what I was feeling at the time.