Robert Frost, author of “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, and Mark Twain, author of Two Ways of Seeing A River, explore the idea of beauty by putting their personal feelings into what they see. Both of these American authors use nature to interpret the ways of beauty into words. Frost and Twain go hand in hand with each other in the aspect of their diction. While Frost and Twain both use imagery to demonstrate fleeting beauty, frost includes time indicators, while Twain uses rhetorical questions.
In both “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” by Robert Frost and Two Ways of Seeing a River by Mark Twain, they both use imagery as a device to describe fleeting beauty. Frost begins with light words to show the idea that there is always a start to something. The word “hue” reflects a positive connotation towards the audience because it represents the goodness. When he uses the word “flower” (line 3), it is associated with the beauty in
…show more content…
At the end of his journey with the river, he reflects upon himself the way of the river by making the analogy of the knowledge he gained and a doctor. The “beauty’s cheek” (par.3) is to the doctor as the river is to Twain. He asks himself, “Does he ever see her beauty at all…” (par.3) meaning that as the doctor looks at someone with rosy cheeks, he looks at everything through the knowledge he’s learned as a doctor and does not look at it simply as rosy cheeks. This relates to Twain due to the fact that as he looks at the river, he does not look at it for all of its beauty, but looks at it through the knowledge he has gained about the river. At the very end of the piece, Twain asks the doctor if he “wonders whether he has gained most or lost most by learning his trade?” (par.3) but he is truly asking himself that question about the river. He believes that he has lost most because he now cannot look at the river for its original beauty because it is
Although there are a number of different facets regarding the careers and works of Gwendolyn Brooks and Robert Frost, there are a number of similarities between their respective poems "We Real Cool" and "Nothing Gold Can Stay". These similarities become all the more apparent when one attempts to compare the imagery of these poems. A careful consideration of this comparison indicates that the imagery of each of these poems is preoccupied with the concept of time in various aspects of its ephemeral nature, which ultimately reveals itself in a common theme of the untimely transition of youth to a state of death.
"The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched-they must be felt by the heart" Helen Keller once said.The poems I am analyzing is Ode To Enchanted Light by Pablo Neruda and Sleeping in the forest" by Mary Oliver.In "Ode to enchanted light", poet Pablo Neruda touches upon, passion for life, nature, and the world.The author uses this through the use of metaphors, similes, and personification.In "Sleeping in the forest" the author touches upon elements of nature.The author also uses similes, personification, and etc.
“Nothing Gold Can Stay” is a poem by Robert Frost; it is a beautifully written poem that uses nature as a medium to discuss the importance of youth or childhood. He uses his word specifically to create a definite meaning behind his word. The beginning of his poem starts with, “Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold.”; he uses the myth of gold being the purest and most precious metal, to show that nature’s first stage is precious as well. However, these words have more than just their literal meaning, as Frost also alludes to youth. This quote from the poem could be taken as: childhood is the best and purest part of life, but it is life’s shortest part. Gold is symbolized here as the purity of childhood and how precious it is. This entire sentence is an impressive piece of writing, but the part that really makes it stand out is “her hardest hue to hold”. The last part of the quote says nature’s first green is the
One may think life is perfect when going right but, can this everlasting feeling stay forever? In the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost, he clarifies that the innocence of youth cannot last forever. Frost also shows how perfection and beauty can be a temporary path to ones sorrow. Much like the garden of Eden with the ongoing futuristic consequences of good and evil on Earth.
The poems “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost and “The Red Wheelbarrow” by William Carlos Williams are modernist in tone and use of figurative language. But where Frost builds image upon image to convey a tone of sad acceptance of the reality that nothing lasts, Williams sticks to one simple image of a simple object to convey a playful tone. In the first line of “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” Frost uses the metaphor “first green is gold” to refer to what is new and fresh; “early leaf” in the third line similarly means the newest thing: “Her early leaf’s a flower.” Frost also uses personification, referring to Nature with the female pronoun, “her.” Further, he uses alliteration: “first green is gold” and “dawn goes down to day.” He also uses
For instance, the poems, “To Helen,” by Edgar Allan Poe and “Helen,” by Hilda Doolittle write about Helen and her beauty, but are actually written in two completely different ways. Poe’s poem, “To Helen,” has many characteristics of American Romantics literature because he values nature, individuality and the authors sense of emotion to express his love and admiration for Helen. In the first stanza of the poem, Poe was comparing Helen’s beauty, in the form of similes and metaphors, to nature, “Like those barks of yore, That gently, o’er a perfumed sea,” (Poe 1 - 3) to express the traveler’s essence for Helen. Throughout the rest of the poem Helen’s beauty is seen as a way home or, “The light at the end of the tunnel,” to guide the traveler back home. Helen and her faultless beauty are the traveler’s hope and savior, but are far from that in the eyes of
In "Nothing Gold Can Stay" Robert Frost uses to imagery, symbols, and personification to support his theme that no beauty or youth is perpetual and withers as time walks on. The poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" was first published in 1923 in America by the acclaimed author Robert Frost whom at the time was thought to have a hostile view towards nature (Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism). Imagery in literature refers to use of descriptive terms in the hopes of making the reader experience the scenery of the text in their mind. Symbols are utilized mainly works such as narratives to represent something greater than what is actually mentioned. Personification is the device most often used by authors writing fictional works to refer to an immobile
however, he soon realizes the river holds hidden dangers, and the river is no longer as exciting. In the beginning, he is enchanted by the river’s beauty, “I drank it in, in a speechless rapture “and chooses to turn a blind eye to the river’s dangers. He understands that although beautiful, the dangerous waterway holds no mercy for the people or boats that travel along the mighty Mississippi. Twain’s perspective changes dramatically towards the river, and when he recognizes that, emotions quickly turn from excitement to respect. Twain’s change in perspective of the river can be applied to buying a new car. A new car is exciting when one first drives off the lot, but can quickly turn into problems if one does not follow the proper maintenance. Twain understands that the river is beautiful like a
Robert Lee Frost was an American, highly regarded for his realistic depictions of rural life and his command of American colloquial speech (Bloom 10). In his poems, he employs several stylistic devices that give the poem a good flow. Frost’s poems, Birches and Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, share certain stylistic elements such as he uses rhetoric questions, repetition, alliteration, symbolism, and imagery. In Birches, a rhetoric question is apparent where he asks, “whose words these are I think now?” Also, in Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening, he asks, “now am I free to be poetical?” (Frost) In essence, the use of particular stylistic devices and themes set the pace, and the mood of the poems and they communicate Frost’s message in an appealingly and comprehensively to the reader.
It is without a doubt that Robert Frost is one of the most famous and revered American poets of the 20th century, having been made distinct not only by his lyrical poems but also by his kind grandfatherly appearance. However, it is important to note that despite this public image he conveys, or perhaps the image that the public perceives, underneath Frost’s seemingly light-themed works are indications of his darker, more contemplative themes. While his poems are very lyrical to an almost melodic degree which lends a charming tone to them, close analysis of these reveals certain meanings that can be considered as much deeper than the superficial message embodied in his words. In a way, it can be said that Robert Frost is a master of poetic duality in the sense that whereas his works are light from the outside, they possess a dark meaning. Which can be seen in three of his works
People have different types of lifestyle, personality, thoughts, careers, and choices, but in the world, there are only a few people who have similar thoughts, ideas, and a passion for writing such as Emily Dickinson and Robert Frost. These poets express their emotions and feelings, in their poems. In this paper I will compare two poems by Dickinson “We Grow Accustomed to the Dark” and “A Bird came down the Walk,” and two poems by Frost, “Acquainted with the Night” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening,” the history of the authors, and their similarities and differences.
The two poems “Pied Beauty” and “Design” have many similarities in their imagery. Both of these poems contain natural imagery in great detail, and the imagery focuses on the unusual things about nature. A vivid example from “Beauty” is “I found a dimpled spider, fat and white” (Frost 1). ¹ This quote describes the appearance of the spider that is one of the characters that Frost includes in this poem. An example from “Pied Beauty” is “For skies of couple-color as a brindled cow” (Hopkins 2). ² Hopkins is painting a picture of what he believes is beautiful in nature, which includes a
"Nothing Gold Can Stay" repeatedly talks about nature and specifically Mother Nature. The pronoun her recurs as a reference to Mother Nature. Frost also uses the word gold because of his frequent comparison of gold to nature, which is what his poem is about. Although metaphors are a form of figurative language, metaphors are used frequently.
Robert Frost wrote Nothing Gold Can Stay In 1923, Just five years after World War I. He believed that the war would be the end of the world. When you look at the first line of the poem you see that it says that " Nature's first green is gold....". In this line it sort of gives you a setting of the poem in nature, in spring. Then after it tells us the setting it says that the first green of nature is gold. This means that things at the beginning are gold, pure, and new. For Instance a Willow tree or a sunrise.. A willow tree is gold when it is just blooming the slowly turns green over time. A sunrise is nice because it seems to make the area brighter than any other time of day.
During his life, Robert Frost, the icon of American literature, wrote many poems that limned the picturesque American landscape. His mostly explicated poems “Birches” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” reflect his young manhood in the rural New England. Both of these poems are seemingly straightforward but in reality, they deal with a higher level of complexity and philosophy. Despite the difference in style and message, “Birches” and “Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening” are loaded with vivid imagery and symbolism that metaphorically depict the return to nature and childhood, the struggle between reality and imagination and also life and death.