Fire and Ice

Robert Frost (1874–1963) · New Hampshire · Grace Notes · 1923

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

Where this text comes from

First published in New Hampshire (1923). First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established. [1] [2] [3]

Structure read from the source's markup; the words have not been compared against a page scan. Last checked 2026-08-12.

Taken from Standard Ebooks, standardebooks/robert-frost_new-hampshire, new-hampshire.xhtml. Rights: public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931).

Earlier sources (2)

This poem as JSON or plain text. Line anchors #L1–#L9.

Cite this poem

Robert Frost (1874–1963). “Fire and Ice.” First published in New Hampshire (1923). Text: Poem Index, https://poemindex.org/robert-frost/fire-and-ice/. Append #L14 to cite line 14, or #L4-L9 for lines 4–9.

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