`` Nothing Gold Can Stay `` By Sylvia Plath

Robert Frost is the author of Nothing Gold Can Stay. Although you have to break down this poem to get the real meaning, it is based off of his point of view of politics. But, this poem can also be taken many different ways. Even though I said it was based off of politics, it can also be about nature and life.

With the impending end of every good thing comes a chance for a new beginning and a chance for a perfect moment. In a world where perfect moments seem scarce, one is constantly reminded how temporary life truly is. Around every corner, something always seems to be going wrong- war, poverty, famine- and yet some people still manage to find the best in every situation. Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay and the film Gladiator externally showcase completely different concepts; yet relate in a way that allows one to realize how short life can be. A piece about nature and another about the life of a Roman soldier; One simply cannot fathom how two pieces as diverse as these can correlate. However, both pieces examine the idea that life’s greatest

Doesn’t everyone wish they could grow up faster when they are younger, but when they actually start to grow up, they just want it to slow down? Aging is a unique experience to everyone and each person deals with it differently. This theme of aging and how people see themselves can be seen both similarly and differently in “Mirror” by Sylvia Plath and “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost. These similarities and differences can be seen through each author’s tone, each poem’s structure, and each poem’s overall message.

Robert Frost wrote this poem during the a time where people believed the end of the world was approaching, this may have had some influence on his poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay". He wrote it in 1923 , which was shortly after WW2 and there was much speculation of the end. Growing up his life was dreadful, mental illness ran in his family and his wife even experianced depression.

In a poem about a mirror, we can expect a lot of reflections. Plath only uses the word "reflect" once, though. Instead of just repeating this word again and again, she uses personification and metaphor to get her point across. The emphasis on reflections in this poem shows the importance of appearance to the woman in the poem. Line 2 is also an example of personification because mirrors don 't see or swallow anything but Plath 's poem makes this character so believable that we have to remind ourselves that mirrors don 't have eyes or mouths. In line 6 the metaphor is that the mirror is reflecting the opposite wall, not "meditating on" it and the personification is that mirrors don 't meditate, but people do. In lines 7-8 we have another example of personification used to create a metaphor for reflection because mirrors don 't see and they don 't look. In line 11 the mirror is a lake, and a woman is searching its waters to learn something about herself. The woman is treating her reflection in the water as if it could

Life and death are leaves us with an known and unknown that are unavoidable. In the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost symbolism, rhyme, and allusion are used to describe not only nature’s life cycle but the human life cycle as well. The allegory “Used to Live Here Once” by Jean Rhys uses symbolism and motif to deliver a story of a woman who has died but is unaware that she has actually passed away. Even though both of these pieces of literature utilize similar elements that symbolize the human life cycle in their writings they are very different in nature, and the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” leaves you with an actual reality of all beings lifecycles and the allegory leaves you with imagination only.

Sylvia Plath cannot bear the truth and begins to cry; she constantly wants something else to make her feel good about herself, she longs to be young. “I am important to her. She comes and goes. Each morning it is her face that replaces the darkness. She goes back to the lake for answers every morning and the lake is pleased to see her. The poem ends by the lake saying “In me she has drowned a young girl, and in me an old woman rises toward her day after day, like a terrible fish.” This shows Sylvia Plath’s dislike of how old she looks. Sylvia Plath has been looking in this mirror every day for a long period of time, and she is realizing that she is getting older and she cannot do anything about it.

Reading a inspirational poem like “ Nothing gold can stay “ is a piece of calmness and joy . Throughout the day someone could be going through it or having a bad day but read “nothing gold can stay “ and all the pain will go away .

"Things depart which may never return" (2). Percy Bysshe Shelley's poem "To Wordsworth" portrays William Wordsworth as a once noble and inspirational figure, the "best poet of the age" (Probst). However, years later Wordsworth experienced a shift in his passion for poetry and his lost his golden insights which were a great disappointment to Shelley (book). Shelley thus chose to honor Wordsworth as an inspiring memory rather than a present failure. Ceasing Wordsworth’s existence post his golden decade, Shelley is able to remember Wordsworth with admiration.

Sylvia Plath is well known for her rather obscure themes in her writing. One theme that appears in almost all of her poems is that of isolation from mankind and the world. In Plath’s case, isolation can also mean isolation from expression, from freedom, or from people. Plath’s poems “Daddy”, “Lady Lazarus”, and “Tulips” all express isolation through separate literary techniques such as metaphor, juxtaposition, and imagery

Lastly, Plath employs the negative effect of the progression of aging over a period of time. The poet uses connotations to show the maturity of the woman. The mirror describes the wall it reflects as: “It is pink, with speckles” (7). When picturing the color pink, people associate it with femininity, girl, innocence, and sensitivity. For example, during baby showers, people color coordinate everything with colors that are associated with the baby that is going to be born. If the baby is going to be a boy, then they will decorate and color coordinate everything to be the color blue but if the baby is going to be a girl, then they will decorate and color coordinate everything to be the color pink. The use of the color “pink” describes how young

Mirror is the first poem of the four we will talk about. She is a woman poet in the 20th century. She has a lot of pressure with writing. Who is the speaker in the story? It’s her, herself. Mirror reflects on everything it sees. When we look in the mirror, what are we looking for? Or hoping to see? We are judged every day by so many people. So we care about how we look and we want to present ourselves nicely. That is her point in the poem. She had courage

     The mirror in the poem is a representation of the truths in life that as a person is difficult to come to terms with in one's self. The woman's view of herself and her reluctance to accept her natural and God-given beauty, shows how we all (as a society or as an individual) find it hard to accept ourselves for who we truly are. How we try to make ourselves into a conformed object of "popular beauty" based upon our outward appearance, instead of going by how our personal feelings that come from within us.

“Mirror” was used to help the reader reflect on what they were going through by accounting the experiences of Plath. With time a woman who was once a young child started becoming a worn old woman, who was compared to an “ugly fish” in the poem. The use of metaphors, symbolism, and imagery brought all those aspects of what many compare aging and appearance to but this poem did it in such an imaginative and beautiful way that the reader didn't realize what pained Sylvia Plath and what ultimately led to her

One literary technique that Plath utilizes frequently in her poems is motifs; with certain topics appearing consistently in her poems: feet, nature, death, and, in particular, mirrors. Entitled “Mirror,” this poem personifies a mirror, and what it experiences through its own “eyes.” The mirror begins by describing its physical appearance as “silver and exact,” and how it has “no preconceptions,” the mirror is emphasizing the fact that when looking at one’s physical appearance in the mirror, in this case the lady character in the poem, that the mirror gives the entire truth of how a person actually appears. The mirror is not willing to alter the image of an individual because it is not the truth. It is often perceived that the mirror is being “cruel” because the “woman” is not always pleased when seeing her reflection, the mirror is the voice of honesty in this poem and it is only being “truthful” to the woman about her appearance. Later in the poem, the mirror becomes a lake, and this time when the woman is looking at her reflection, I believe that she is looking at more than just her physical reflection; she is searching for her inner-self. I do not believe that the woman will be able to find her “true self” through the reflection of the lake because the water is able to shape in all directions; in essence, the lady could shape her own perception of her “true self” - just as water can be shaped. The poem also mentions that the woman “turns to those liars, the candles or the moon,” it is evident through this line to identify that the woman is clearly using the “candle” and the “moon” to alter her “true” appearance. The woman in the end comes back to the mirror because she knows that it will always be honest with her. Although the woman comes to the conclusion that she values the truth, I at first perceived her as crazy for using a “candle” in order to make her appear more attractive, but this can be very relatable in today’s society. I realized that everyday I am also a victim of altering my appearance in a mirror as well; when taking a