Nothing Gold Can Stay: By Robert Frost

Isaac Burton

Ms. Waters

AP English

12/6/14

5th Period

Nothing Gold Can Stay: By Robert Frost

Nothing Gold Can Stay

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.

 “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is an abstract poem. It is evident by the terminology and words being utilized within the poem.  In interpreting the poem, I tried to understand the connotative and denotative meaning of each word within the context of the poem.  As the poem continues, it became increasingly difficult to understand because of the multiple paradoxes within the words. The line “Nature’s first green is gold” was the hardest to understand. While this line was confusing me, it also brought light to the poems true meaning. Since green signifies spring and rebirth in nature, I believe that the speaker of this poem was referring to spring as gold. Spring is a wonderful time of year. New colors arrive, vegetation flourishes, and wildlife comes out of hibernation. With all of these beautiful things taking place at once, I came to the conclusion that spring was just as breathtaking as a mine full of gold.                                                

One of the reasons this poem grabbed my attention was because of the paradox in the third line. Because of its metaphorical symbolism, I understood that the speaker thought the leaf was just as beautiful and significant as the flower; even though the flower has natural advantages over the leaf as far as its appearance. Although I do not care much for nature, this poem seems to open a door for the love of nature in my eyes. In essence, this poem is really just saying that nature (green) is just as good as gold. Even though gold never really perishes because of its physical properties, we should still treat nature like a diamond, gold, rubies, sapphires, or any other precious metal that may appeal to human desire.

My favorite parts of this poem were the last two lines. “So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.” This part of the poem strikes my attention because it makes a point about nature that other poems about nature does not.  It is saying that even in the morality of things such as nature, or spring in this case, can still be one of the greatest parts of someone’s life. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is truly evidence that nature lovers, as well as those who do not care as much about nature as they do things such as gold, can still find comfort and security in the arms of nature.