As someone who hated certain people, this poem has always struck an accord with me. For me this poem contrasts the 2 different approaches to hating and the destruction both are capable of. I have(in the past) done both. I started with the first and turned to the latter as the latter lasts longest and is sweeter though the first is SO intoxicating. The first kind is fiery hate. With this hate, the person lets his passions/desire fuel his pain. Such hate does not last long as the hate burns out leaving in its wake a path of destruction that affects both the hater and the hated. The other form of hate is cold. With this type, the person controls his passions and so thinks he controls the hate. He does nothing rash and passionate but rather, using his hate, becomes cold and calculating until he has a means of carrying out a perfect plan by which to exact whatever the hate demands. Then he executes that plan with cold exactitude. Or the hater will remain frozen with hatred for too long and end up accidentally destroying his life. To me this poem makes the most sense as a measuring of the destructive power of fiery, passionate hate and icy, calculating hate. Fire destroys intoxicatingly quickly but for destruction ice most assuredly does suffice.