Caption: A US postage stamp honoring poet Robert Frost (1874--1963), issued 1974 Mar26 (which was the centennial of Frost's birthday).

It has become de rigueur when discussing the fate of the observable universe to quote the following poem by Robert Frost---even though he was clearly using cosmology as a metaphor for an aspect of human nature.

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


---Robert Frost (1874--1963). First published 1923. Reference site: Representative Poetry Online poem, Representative Poetry Online (RPO), University of Toronto.

But for poetic cosmology, the world is still awaiting for a new Lucretius (c.95--c.55 BCE), a new De Rerum Natura---yours truly would have to learn Latin---but maybe only sub specie aeternitatis.

Credit/Permission: US Federal Government, 1974 (uploaded to Wikipedia by User:Cult-p, 2006) / Public domain.
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