and roast the earth or 2) Earth would be somehow saved from the destruction of the sun, but it would freeze due to the lack of heat and light provided by the sun. A second theory about the inspiration of the poem is thatDante’s Inferno inspired Frost. According to several historians, he wrote the poem after reading the section about how traitors are frozen in ice as hell burns around them.  

The imagery in the poem surrounds the tactile feelings attributed to the heat and the cold. Fire gives heat. A little heat is pleasing and comfortable, but too much fire results in pain and death. Likewise, the cool nature of ice can be good in moderation by soothing a sore muscle or cooling off the body on a hot day, but too much and the appendages are destroyed through frostbite. Fire and Ice are also great forces in nature for change. Fire can destroy forests that have stood for thousands of years in a matter of hours and Ice can rip apart mountains by seeping in as water and expanding as ice.

Using this imagery, Frost alludes that the human emotion of desire is much like fire.  Like fire, desire feels good.  However, desire like fire, if allowed to run out of control is a destructive force.  Likewise, the imagery of ice in connection to hate- hate seeps in and expands.  Hate's destructive nature rips apart lives and people by seeping in and expanding until it breaks bonds that were once strong.  

In this nine-line poem, Frost's speaker states his opinion that the world will end because of human emotion, not natural disaster. The two emotions that are in contention to destroy the earth are desire (which could also be understood as greed) and hate.

Frost's speaker puts his money on desire, which he likens to a fire, as what will bring on the earth's demise, saying:

I hold with those who favor fire.

One of the main strengths of the poem is its ambiguity, which is reflected in its suggestive anticlimax. Frost expertly sets us up to expect a firm answer to the question: how will the world end, by the power of fire or ice? But there's no neat resolution here nor should there be. The elemental forces of fire and ice simply cannot be fully comprehended or contained by mere human speculation. Look at how their human analogues, desire and hate are so incredibly all-consuming and destructive. If we can't control our own emotions how do we expect to predict how the primal forces of nature will behave billions of years in the future?

Frost seems to suggest that the question is all rather academic and shouldn't concern us for a moment longer. We have wide experience of intense emotions and the human relationships they taint and destroy. Perhaps it would be better for us if we concentrated on our emotional lives and their consequences instead of engaging in idle speculation on the end of days.

The theme of Robert Frost's poem is the destuctive potential of hatred and desire.

In his poem, Frost explores with amazingly eloquent brevity two forces which have the potential to bring destruction to the world.  The first of these two is desire, which Frost likens in heat and intensity to fire.  The second of the two is hatred, which he likens to ice. 

In the poem, Frost examines the question of which of these two elements will ultimately destroy the world.  Although he notes that there are avid supporters of both possiblities, the poet himself believes that, in the end, it will be fire, or desire, which will do the job.  He closes the poem with an acknowledgement also that, although he did not choose it as being the likely cause of the earth's demise, hatred, or ice, has an equal potential to bring about final destruction.

You can probably read this poem on many levels.  One of them might be as a comment on relationships gone bad, or which could go bad.  The "fire" option may represent the passions --- greed, anger, lust, yelling, confrontation --- you get the idea.  Any of these can destroy a relationship (or a world).  On the other hand, the "ice" --- chill in relationship, ignoring the other, not communicating, perhaps even hatred --- these would do just as well in destroying a relationship (or a world).

What is not said, but suggested, is that there must be a middle that can prevent either of these from happening, either the first time or the next.  It's interesting to see how this poems works not so much by what it says, but by what it doesn't say.

Frost was often intentionally elusive in his use of metaphors. In this poem, by using the universal symbols of fire and ice, he leaves the gate wide open for multiple interpretations.

Although fire and ice are antithetical by nature, one can be as destructive as the other. This poem reminds me of Langston Hughes' poem "A Raisin in the Sun," where he points out that apathy and indifference (in Frost's poem, ice) can be as detrimental as rage and violence (as fire) over time.

See the section on "Fire and Ice" in the enotes reference below.

Through the contrast of fire and ice, Frost examines two antithetical human emotions. Fire becomes a metaphor for love as he defines it in terms of desire, while ice functions as a metaphor for hatred. We can infer from the poem that these two emotions, which appear to be opposites, can be equally destructive.

The overall theme of the poem is the equal destructiveness of hate, or "ice," and desire, or "fire." Frost introduces what seems like a long-standing debate concerning which is the more destructive:

Some say the world will end in fire,

Some say in ice.

But Frost is adamant that this is not a matter can ever be resolved to everyone's satisfaction. Many people have had their lives destroyed by hate; one only has to think of the many savage wars that have plagued humanity since the dawn of time. Yet at the same time, desire can also have extremely negative consequences, whether it's sexual desire, desire for money, or desire for power. In both cases, we are dealing with forces that cannot be completely comprehended by the limits of the human mind. All we can reasonably do is to recognize that hatred and desire are both equally dangerous and try our best to bring them under control.