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Learn how to interpret the meaning and symbolism of Robert Frost's famous poem Nothing Gold Can Stay, which compares the fleeting nature of nature's first green to the impermanence of love. The poem explores the themes of loss, death, and nostalgia through the imagery of a garden and a rose.
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold. Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf. So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay. From The Poetry of Robert Fros t edited by Edward Connery Lathem.
A poem by Robert Frost about the transience of life, beauty, and youth. Themes include the metaphor of spring's ending, the symbol of nature, and the poetic devices of alliteration, metaphor, and assonance. Learn more with line-by-line explanations, symbols, and resources.
- Structure and Form
- Theme
- Literary Devices
- Detailed Analysis
- Historical Context
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‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’ is an example of how Robert Frost used common American and rural imageryto discuss complex topics. There are no words in this piece with more than three syllables, for instance. Even the rhyme scheme is simplistic. The rhymes come at the end of each line in couplets, following a pattern: aa, bb, cc, dd.
The central theme of this poem focuses on the idea of nature’s most beautiful elements as the briefest and most important. The poem uses a metaphor of the early leaves of spring changing in order to demonstrate this. The poet also reflects on how the most perfect moments or things cannot be preserved forever.
In this poem, the poet uses a few different literary devices. These include: 1. Alliteration: This can be seen when the poet repeatsthe same consonant sound at the beginning of multiple words. For example, “green” and “gold” in line one. 2. Metaphor: This poem is a metaphor for the changing nature of beauty. The green of nature is immediately compa...
Line 1
‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’begins with a simple statement. I believe that ‘Nature’s first green’ refers to spring. The poet is saying that the commonly accepted beauty of the first buds of green shooting up after a long winter is worth as much as gold. It is a fleeting beauty; the seasons will inevitably march on. The soft beauty of spring soon fades to summer and beyond.
Line 2
“Her” refers to nature, often personifiedas a woman or mother. The “hue” is of course, “green,” as explained in the first line. The second explains that the green of spring cannot last. In summer, the fields dry to brown. In fall, the leaves wither, change colors, and fall to earth. In winter, life is buried under a sea of white. It is impossible to keep a plant green forever, as any gardener knows.
Line 3
This line of ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’is both a statement of fact and a metaphor. Obviously, in spring, the trees will bud and flower before growing back their leaves. In that literal respect, the statement is completely accurate. Metaphorically, the writer is saying that the earliest leaves are as beautiful as a flower. In other words, spring itself is lovely as a flower.
Frost is one of the most famous and honored poets in American history. He often employed scenes from rural New England in his poems, using them to discuss complex philosophical topics. In ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’, for instance, the poet uses the shifting of the seasons to comment on the fleeting nature of life and beauty. The poem was first publishe...
Learn about the meaning, themes, and literary devices of Frost's famous poem that compares nature's beauty to gold. Explore how the poem reflects on the impermanence of life and the importance of appreciating the present.
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Nothing gold can stay. " Nothing Gold Can Stay " is a short poem written by Robert Frost in 1923 and published in The Yale Review in October of that year. It was later published in the collection New Hampshire (1923), [1] which earned Frost the 1924 Pulitzer Prize for Poetry. The poem lapsed into public domain in 2019. [2]
- US
- Natural Beauty
- October 1923
- The Yale Review
May 3, 2020 · The poem explores the mutability of nature and the loss of paradise through the fading of green leaves in autumn. It compares nature's green to gold, and the Garden of Eden to a paradise lost. It uses tetrameter, alliteration, and rhyme to create a stark and powerful image of the world's transience.
Meaning of Nothing Gold Can Stay. Opening Section The poem begins with the lines: “Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.”. These opening verses introduce the theme of ephemerality—how the first and finest blooms of nature are fleeting, just like gold. Frost uses ‘gold’ to symbolize value and beauty, suggesting that ...
