“Nothing Gold Can Stay” is an important poem by Robert Frost that was first published in 1923. When the poem was published, the critics started calling it as a short poem.
Table of Contents
Nothing Gold Can Stay Tone
The poem has a deep romanticism that provokes the readers to make Robert Frost as a ‘Romantic Poem’. It was published in Yale Review and after published it became famous.
Robert Frost gets a Pulitzer Prize for writing this poem. After some days, the poem again was published in the ‘New Hampshire’.
Nothing gold can Stay by Theme
In the poem, Frost tries to speak on the continuous journey of the beauty of nature. Is the first line, he is comparing ‘nature’s first green’ with gold.
Gold is all time a precious and pure asset of Human-being. Like gold, nature is also pure and precious. Robert Frost glorifying nature through his words.
So, a hard romantic element towards nature is coming out to the readers. The poet also signifies the beauty of his beloved by present the term ‘leaf’.
The importance of time is also very significant to the poet and also to his readers. Nature gets the central attention of this poem.
Nothing Gold Can Stay Summary
The first is very simple where the poet is saying that nature’s first green is gold. So from this line, it is clear that he is addressing the leaf of a tree.
The first rousing leaf is green and it is gold according to the poet. Maybe it gives us oxygen that is why the poet is comparing a Green leaf with gold. Or maybe the sun ray is falling down into it and that is why it is looking like gold.
Lyrics
“Her hardest hue to hold”
So, now the poet perhaps is talking about his beloved who had a great skin color that now gets dimmed. The ‘hue’ is like the early leaf that gets down after the ending of a day.
So the beloved is also getting faded because of getting old. Beauty does not stay forever it is the motive of the poet. Her early leaf was a flower that had a tantalizing smell and beautiful looks.
So, this line is very significant as,
“Beauty is not permanent”
As the beloved’s beauty has faded, nature’s beauty will also be faded. She was like a flower at the beginning but days and years make her old.
Within an hour the leaf becomes tired and it’s dark green color gets faded. The poet also has the same question that is this the rule of nature? Maybe he gives the answer by his words that it is a game of nature.
“Nothing is permanent.”
When time starts passing away a leaf hides another leaf by its green.
“Then leaf subsides to leaf.”
This line also a very significant line that tells the readers about nature’s game. Tome removes everything as a leaf is being hidden by another.
Time plays an important role in the poem. Now, the poet has taken a religious approach that is,
“So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.”
The human also fell down to the world from the harder of Eden. Here, Frost is saying about that. People are falling down every time and the garden of Eden sank to grief.
By these two lines, the poet tries to speak out on the fact of human birth. From that time beauty is changing and man gets faded with time.
“Nothing gold can stay” is the last line of the poem that is presenting the poet’s mind where he agrees to nature’s changing course.
Nothing Gold Can Stay Analysis
This poem consists of eight lines and it is called a short poem by all the critics. Many of the critics utter that time plays a big role in this poem.
Nature’s beauty is also another part of this poem. The very first lines are telling about nature where a green leaf is looking shiny and gold.
But by ‘nature’s oblivion courses’ the gold leaf is getting hidden by another leaf. These lines are very much connected to human life.
After birth, a man starts doing many things and some get an attractive look. But time fetches the beauty from her or him. According to the poet, his beloved perhaps lost her beauty because it never stays long.
“Beauty does not stay long.”
It is the main point of view of Robert Frost. Throughout his poem, he speaks on that.
Nothing Gold Can Stay Literary Devices
The rhyming pattern of the poem is aabbccdd, it is very simple and the meter of this poem is iambic tetrameter. Then comes symbolism as a poetic device.
“Nature’s first green is gold,”
It is a perfect symbol of the leaf of a tree. The poet a symbol to express his thoughts in a different way. Alliteration is also a very relevant literary device.
Alliteration is the repetition of the same vowel sounds written in a line one after another. Like,
“So dawn goes down to day.”
Anaphora is another literary style that Frost uses. Anaphora is the repetition of the same word at the beginning of two lines.
“So Eden sank…
So dawn goes…”
Allusion
The allusion also can be seen here. The allusion is an indirect reference to a thing. Here the poet gives a historical reference ‘Eden sank’ that means the Golden apple tree of the garden of Eden.
Nothing Gold Can Stay Questions
Who Said Nothing Gold Can Stay?
Robert Frost says that nothing gold can stay.
What does the hardest hue to hold mean?
Here, it means, keeping the innocence of the leaf.
What is the meaning behind the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay?
Time is the grand meaning behind the poem.
What is the rhyme scheme in Nothing Gold Can Stay?
The rhyming scheme is ‘aabbccdd’.
What does it mean to stay golden?
Stay golden means stay with your own beauty.