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Literary Analysis Of Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay

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Poems can be a wonderful source of self-expression, some may be straightforward with their meaning, some may just be silly and for fun while others need a closer look to find the deeper meaning. One example of a poem that appears to have a deeper meaning is Robert Frost's small eight-line poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" about natures various stages and refers to the briefness of each stage. Although this poem uses words such as, nature, flower, and leaf, the poem has a hidden message about life. While this poem invokes images of fleeting seasons and quickly dying flowers, perhaps this is of a metaphor for life and the brief time of innocence.

The first line of the poem states how "natures first green is gold", first green representing new life, a new child and gold representing innocence (Frost). Nothing is ever as innocence as an infant that has not seen or done wrong yet. During this first line, the meaning is not clear as to whether he is referring to actual nature or to humans, although the process of birth is nature. According to Alfred Ferguson, "Green is the first mark of spring, the assurance of life" ("Frost and the Paradox of the Fortunate Fall." 1973). Interpreting this starting line as new beginnings are the most special, but also, the briefest.

The next line Frost writes, "Her hardest hue to hold" is the most difficult to decipher by itself ("Nothing Gold Can Stay"). Mother nature could be the "her" in this poem, as nature is responsible for life. Hardest to

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