This poem, an old favorite, might be Robert Frost at his succinct best. Its charming rhyme and meter belie the layers of tonal depth, and I am such a goner for a short, well executed poem.

Anyway, it came across my feed again lately, and it reminds me so much of the daily gauntlet of current events that I really just wanted to share it here.

Fire and Ice

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.

***

Instead of a brief author bio of Robert Frost, please give a few minutes to reading this interesting biographical essay and analysis of his place in American Letters — which, by the way, is on many people’s lists of America’s five most important poets, along with Emily Dickinson, William Carlos Williams, Walt Whitman, and Langston Hughes. And note that while I’ve almost never before seen a picture of him where he didn’t look quite advanced in years, in searching for an image of him tonight I found several from his younger adulthood, and, well. Let’s just go with this one.