About ice

Fire and Ice

(From Harper’s Magazine, December 1920.)
by Robert Frost

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 know that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

Of winter weather, little is more dangerous than ice.

It hides--black ice, hard to see and easy to fall on or skid your car over.

It shines--so you know to try to slow down, but if you do it too quickly, you ssssllliiidddeeeeeee, probably somewhere you don't want to go, like into another car or a tree or a ditch.

It's heavy--it pulls on power lines and snaps them, it collects on tree branches and bends them 'til they break.

But even still, it's beautiful. This afternoon, the ice still clung to the trees around work, and the fog hung around and it was like being in a words of tree ghosts.

We have a winter storm watch for late tonight and tomorrow. But who knows what it will bring? The front hangs to our south, and we get more ice. A few miles north, and we get a cold terrible rain that chills you to your bones.

Makes me hold to those who favor fire.

How about you? Fire, or ice?