NCERT Solutions for Class 10 English First Flight Chapter 2 Fire and Ice Poem
Thinking about the Poem
Q1. There are many ideas about how the world will ‘end’. Do you think the world. will end some day? Have you ever thought what would happen if the sun got so hot that It ‘burst’, or grew colder and colder?
Ans. The world’s eventual end has been contemplated through various theories. I believe in its ultimate conclusion, as everything with a beginning must have an end. One theory suggests the world could perish if the Sun overheats and bursts, instantly destroying Earth. Conversely, a gradual cooling of the Sun would lead to the end as well, depriving us of sunlight and life-sustaining energy. These scenarios expose our world’s vulnerability and reliance on external factors for survival.
Q2. For Frost, what do ‘fire’ and ‘ice’ stand for? Here are some Ideas:
Ans. ‘Fire’ stands for greed, avarice, lust, conflict and fury.
‘Ice’ stands for cruelty, intolerance, rigidity, insensitivity, coldness, indifference and hatred.
Q3. What is the rhyme scheme of the poem? How does it help in bringing out the contrasting Ideas in the poem?
Ans. The rhyme scheme of the poem is as follows:
1st stanza: a b a a
2nd stanza: a b a b a
The contrasting concepts of “fire” and “ice” are portrayed through the employed rhyme scheme. The poet suggests that both fire and ice hold the potential to bring about the end of the world. Fire is associated with desire, representing a possible cause of destruction, while ice symbolizes the coldness and indifference between individuals that could also lead to the world’s demise. In the second stanza, the poet expresses the belief that there is enough hatred in the world to affirm that even the destructive power of ice would be adequate to bring about the end of the world.