Comparison: Robert Frost’s ‘Fire and Ice’ & Edmund Spenser's ‘My Love is Like to Ice and I to Fire’

This presentation deals with Comparison: Robert Frost’s ‘Fire and Ice’ & Edmund Spenser's ‘My Love is Like to Ice and I to Fire’. It was presented in class presentation in M.A. Programme. This presentation compares poems of two different poets, with same metaphors but different symbols.

1. Department of English, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University. Paper no.: 108 The American Literature Comparison: Robert Frost’s ‘Fire and Ice’ & Edmund Spenser's ‘My Love is Like to Ice and I to Fire’ Prepared by: Jheel Barad

2. I am Jheel Barad Roll No.: 12 Enrollment no.: 4069206420210003 Sem.: 2 (M.A.) Paper no.: 108 Paper code: 22401 Paper name: The American Literature Topic: Comparison: Robert Frost’s ‘Fire and Ice’ & Edmund Spenser's ‘My Love is Like to Ice and I to Fire’ Submitted to: Smt S.B. Gardi, Department of English, M.K.B.U E-mail: [email protected]

3. Robert Frost’s ‘Fire and Ice’ (Frost) Published in 1923 Modern Poem/ modernist literature Short rhyming poem; ABA ABC BCB Nine lines Metaphor; fire- desire/ passion ice: hatred ‘ Some..’- Universalizing effect Begins with contradiction Paradox: ‘...perish twice’ Tone- destructive; Emotions becoming destructive

4. Metaphors: E.g.: Mary Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’ (Shelley) ‘Vyanana’ is found in the poem, we are not using direct meaning of fire and ice but secondary meaning (INGALLS) Marveled (astonished) at for its compactness, "Fire and Ice" signaled for Frost "a new style, tone, manner, [and] form." Its casual tone masks the serious question it poses to the reader. (John) Robert a Modern or a traditional poet? FIRE ICE Passion/ Desire Hatred Nuclear destruction Isolation/ Alienation climate climate

5. Edmund Spenser's ‘My Love is Like to Ice and I to Fire’. (Spenser) Published in 1595. Sonnet- lyric poem; abab bcbc cdcd ee (Baldwin) Love poem; Metaphysical poem Science (physics) semantic field- boiling, melt, dissolve, burn, congealed Individualism ‘Vyanana’ is found in the poem, we are not using direct meaning of fire and ice but secondary meaning (INGALLS)

6. 1. Rejected love Love changed logical order: fire can't melt ice and ice doesn't calm fire Metaphors: Fire- love passion ice- coldness in relation/ cold- hearted girl (“Analysis of Edmund Spenser's sonnets | MARCO POLO”) Double metaphor- ice to fire is water and water to fire (“Analysis of Edmund Spenser's sonnets | MARCO POLO”) The paradoxical nature of fire and ice- “miraculous” nature Rhetorical questions “alter all the course of kind.” (Spenser) 2. Delighted Love Metaphor: Ice- Distance

7. Comparison : SIMILARITIES Fire-passion/ desire Personified human emotions Use of paradox First person narration Indian Aesthetics- Vyanjana subtopic of Dhvani, proposed by Anandavardhana in ‘Dhvanyaloka’ (INGALLS) CONTRASTS Ice- hatred and distance / cold heartedness Theme: universality (some) and individuality (I) Love poem and destruction poem Modernist and metaphysical poet

8. Work Cited: “Analysis of Edmund Spenser's sonnets | MARCO POLO.” MARCO POLO, 22 December 2015, https://marcopologencana.wordpress.com/2015/12/22/my-love-is-like-to-ice-and-i-to-fire-by-edmund-spenser/. Accessed 13 April 2022. Baldwin, Emma. "My Love is like to ice, and I to fire by Edmund Spenser". Poem Analysis, https://poemanalysis.com/edmund-spenser/my-love-is-like-to-ice-and-i-to-fire/ . Accessed 11 April 2022. Frost, Robert. “Fire and Ice by Robert Frost.” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44263/fire-and-ice. Accessed 12 April 2022. INGALLS, DANIEL H. H. “The Dhvanyaloka of Anandavardhana with the Locana of Abhinavagupta.” Gianfranco Bertagni, 1990, http://www.gianfrancobertagni.it/materiali/tantra/ingalls.pdf. Accessed 13 April 2022. John N. Serio (1999) Frost's Fire and Ice and Dante's Inferno, The Explicator, 57:4, 218-221, DOI: 10.1080/00144949909596879

9. Shelley, Mary Wollstonecraft. Frankenstein. Masterwork Books, 1995. Spenser, Edmund. “Amoretti XXX: My Love is like to ice, and I to….” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/50271/amoretti-xxx-my-love-is-like-to-ice-and-i-to-fire. Accessed 13 April 2022. Walker, Andrew. "Fire and Ice by Robert Frost". Poem Analysis, https://poemanalysis.com/robert-frost/fire-and-ice/ . Accessed 11 April 2022.