StudentShare
Contact Us
Sign In / Sign Up for FREE
Search
Go to advanced search...
Free

Edmund Spenser's poem - Ice and Fire - Essay Example

Cite this document
Summary
The writer of the essay "Edmund Spenser's poem - Ice and Fire" analyzes the poem Ice and Fire written by Spenser. This sonnet is broader than most in its description of love, which begins with the poet’s examination of his own love and expands to his wondering description of love as a whole…
Download free paper File format: .doc, available for editing
GRAB THE BEST PAPER96.4% of users find it useful
Edmund Spensers poem - Ice and Fire
Read Text Preview

Extract of sample "Edmund Spenser's poem - Ice and Fire"

Edmund Spenser's poem - Ice and FireIce and Fire My love is like to ice, and I to fire:How comes it then that this her cold so greatIs not dissolved through my so hot desire,But harder grows the more I her entreat?Or how comes it that my exceeding heatIs not allayed by her heart-frozen cold,But that I burn much more in boiling sweat,And feel my flames augmented manifold?What more miraculous thing may be told,That fire, which all things melts, should harden ice,And ice, which is congeal'd with senseless cold,Should kindle fire by wonderful device?

Such is the power of love in gentle mind,That it can alter all the course of kind. Edmund SpenserNote: The poem above is the one the test used. There was more than what follows, and the words are not exact, as it was impossible to copy and paste from the writing space. I captured what I could with the snipping tool. I tried to write in word and then paste, but that did not work either. I know I missed a few lines in the copying. However, I believe the teacher will find the explication interesting and logical.

This sonnet is more broad than most in its description of love, which begins with the poet’s examination of his own love and expands to his wondering description of love as a whole. The poet contrasts himself and the object of his love, saying that they are opposites, like fire and ice.(line 1-2) He marvels at the comparison and the fact that they do not destroy each other. It is interesting that the poet chose such a constrained form to express his feelings about the immense power of love.

The sonnet keeps very well to the iambic pentameter, but the rhyme scheme is very intricate, almost like a villanelle, with rhyme patterns connected between stanzas. It follows ABAB-BCBC-CDCD-EE, a very difficult pattern to achieve. In a way the form, itself, illustrates the point of the poem, that the differences are both “counter-generative”, that they create each other, and mutually binding. The poet uses strong imagery to excite and push the reader to contemplate the beauty of his expression and the meaning of his words.

He describes his desire as fire and the object of his love as ice. He compares the properties of both of these and marvels at how they do not destroy each other. In the first stanza he explains that his love is cold, hinting that she rebuffs him. He wonders that the heat of his desire does not melt her iciness. Then in the second stanza he wonders why her “heart-frozen” cold (line 6) does not neutralize the heat of his desire which boils his sweat (line 7). The comparisons of fire and ice are really strong ways to talk about feelings.

Man, especially the male of the species, seems to be forever caught by this paradox that the more he is rebuffed, the stronger his desire grows. The images he uses to explain and wonder how they do not destroy each other creates wonderful pictures in the mind of the reader.The poet is expressing something which we see in literature, and even in life, over and over again, that the more the object of love resists, the higher the desire grows in the admirer. We wonder, though, as we read, about the futility of such a love, if it is not returned.

In many works of literature, the ending is rather tragic, but the poet does not deal with the possible future, or even mention it at all. He is caught in the present contemplating the unanswerable question of why his desire grows in spite of the iciness of its reception. However, he ends the poem on a note of hope as he states that the power of love can change all of nature.

Read More
Cite this document
  • APA
  • MLA
  • CHICAGO
(“Edmund Spenser's poem - Ice and Fire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words”, n.d.)
Retrieved from https://studentshare.org/literature/1559052-edmund-spensers-poem-ice-and-fire
(Edmund Spenser'S Poem - Ice and Fire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words)
https://studentshare.org/literature/1559052-edmund-spensers-poem-ice-and-fire.
“Edmund Spenser'S Poem - Ice and Fire Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 Words”, n.d. https://studentshare.org/literature/1559052-edmund-spensers-poem-ice-and-fire.
  • Cited: 3 times

CHECK THESE SAMPLES OF Edmund Spenser's poem - Ice and Fire

Truth, Love, and the Exotic: The Amoretti Series of Edmund Spenser 1

… Edmund Spenser introduces his lady in the poem Amoretti in different ways that impress Stuart Martz for the emotional context in which they place their relationship.... Edmund Spenser introduces his lady in the poem Amoretti in different ways that impress Stuart Martz for the emotional context in which they place their relationship.... Through the evidence presented in the sonnets of Amoretti by Edmund Spenser and the theories by several authorities on the topic, this paper will argue that the ‘lady' in the poems is a figment of spenser's imaginings....
8 Pages (2000 words) Essay

Robert Frosts Fire and Ice. Nature and Relationships

fire and Ice” is an epigram which encapsulates the immensity of the apocalypse in nine lines of powerful verse.... … Robert Frost's short poem, “fire and Ice,” is one of his most popular works.... In “fire and Ice,” Robert Frost expounds on the theories about the end of the world, explores human relationships, and effectively uses understatement to enhance the impact of the poem.... Frost speculates about the scientific theories regarding the end of the world: “Some say the world will end in fire, / Some say in ice” (Frost, 1-2)....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

An Analysis of Fire and Ice

fire and Ice is a very short poem written by the famous poet, Robert Frost.... … Figuratively, fire and ice could refer to emotions.... The Free Dictionary defines fire as “the burning intensity of feeling, ardor or enthusiasm.... From the phrase, “From what I've tasted of desire”, it could be well understood that the term fire as used in the poem refers to such feelings.... The author first considers the general opposing ideas that the world will end in fire or that it will end in ice....
3 Pages (750 words) Essay

Poems of Robert Frost

fire and Ice by Robert Frost is an example of Frost's symbolic poetry in his trial to introduce to the reader the subtle literary parables.... The main idea of the poem is that of apocalypse that can come either through 'fire' or 'ice'.... This poetic message seems to be expressed through a prophetic voice: " Some say the world will end in fire, some say in ice".... The poet demonstrates his art of choosing powerful metaphors to express the destructive force of fire and ice....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Robert Frosts Fire and Ice

(Trent Lorcher) The speaker associates two characteristics of human Inserts His/her Inserts Inserts Grade Inserts Here (Day, Month, Year) Topic Robert frost's fire and ice is a poem that keeps in focus two symbols fire and ice.... (Trent Lorcher)The speaker associates two characteristics of human behavior to fire and ice.... Although there may be other meanings of fire and ice in the poem but the major and broader ones are hate and desire....
1 Pages (250 words) Essay

Literature in English: The Beginnings Through the 17th Century

According to Milton in his poem, The Paradise Lost, the first men on earth were good and were close to God.... The same things are explained by edmund Spenser in The Faerie Queene.... Good is always seen as the source of joy, freedom and fine things while evil is viewed as the source of sorrow and eventual death....
4 Pages (1000 words) Essay

Critique of Poems

The poet has used parallels of the age of persona and the changes in weather where the persona is think his youthful days in terms of spring, when the ice was braking of ice and the summer time when the persona was gaming in hot sun.... The setting could have influenced the poetry's element of imagery where the poet used sense of smell to implore the remembrance of the gone days where “scenting of game in… The dominant imagery in this poem revolve around sense of sight, sound, and touch while sense of smell is suppressed with only imagery word that appeal In as much the poem was almost balanced in three perspective of senses, the sense of smell was least explored....
3 Pages (750 words) Coursework

Knit of the 19th century in two different cultures

This paper takes a look at the two quite different cultures of England and Iceland of the 19th century, pays attention to the traditional and cultural approach to the process and some historic facts describing how both the Englishmen and Icelanders regarded this particular kind of industry.... hellip; This essay discusses that knitting is a process of making of cloth or garments by means of weaving the threads....
9 Pages (2250 words) Essay
sponsored ads
We use cookies to create the best experience for you. Keep on browsing if you are OK with that, or find out how to manage cookies.
Contact Us