| Quote #1 Some say the world will end in fire, (line 1) |
The speaker functions like a judge evaluating two arguments. At the beginning of the poem, we do not yet know whether he will weigh in on the debate.
| Quote #2 Some say in ice. (line 2) |
Oh, it's on. "Fire" and "ice" are pretty arbitrary phenomena, as far as ways to end the world. Why only these two? What about being sucked into a giant black hole? Giant Godzilla attack? (OK, so you can probably file that under "fire.") The point is that Frost doesn't care about being strictly accurate; he is setting up two contrasting symbols.
| Quote #3 I hold with (line 4) |
The speaker uses a very legalistic phrase to let us know that he's planning to take sides in the argument. He sounds like he's competing at a high school debate tournament.