The Tragic Impermanence of Youth in Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay

Robert Frost has a fine talent for putting words into poetry. Words which are normally simplistic spur to life when he combines them into a whimsical poetic masterpiece. His 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' poem is no exception. Although short, it drives home a deep point and meaning. Life is such a fragile thing and most of it is taken for granted. The finest, most precious time in life generally passes in what could be the blink of an eye. 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' shows just this. Even in such a small poem he describes what would seem an eternity or an entire lifetime in eight simple lines. Change is eminent and will happen to all living things. This is the main point of the poem and

Robert Frost’s approach to human isolation is always an interesting exploration. His poem of desertion and neglect paired with eternal hopefulness ignite the reader in his poem “The Census-Taker.” All of the elements of a Frost poem are in this particular poem. “The Census-Taker” must be from an earlier time in Frost’s career because the poem is written in an open, free verse similar to the style of his earlier 20th century poetry like “Mending Wall” and “After Apple-Picking.” Also, the language lacks the sophisticated word selection a reader of poetry might find in Wallace Stevens and instead uses simplicity to

Part of you is being slowly chipped away, the more and more you live life the less and less you have of it and you don't even know it. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is a poem by Robert Frost that uses nature to represent innocence in a person. The Outsiders is about a boy named Ponyboy and his gang the Greasers dealing with bullying, deaths, and life threatening situations that chips away at their personalities. In the Poem “Nothing gold can stay” by Robert Frost and The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton the theme innocence is portrayed in similar ways.

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.

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.

Regardless of its short length and appearance as a nature poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay manages to touch the soul of each reader and allow them to fully understand the mortality of life. “The poem narrates the short-lived experience of Spring’s first moments” and the transient nature of life as described by Frost (Kearney Web). Lines 1-4 describe gold as nature’s first color- its most beautiful and the hardest color to hold. In line 4, Frost analyzes how short lived this moment of pure happiness is. “This line is where the beautiful scene of flourishing nature takes a turn. Notice that it does so exactly halfway through the poem” (Birmingham Web). The momentary nature of line 4 signifies life’s greatest moments slowly beginning to end. The first half of the poem explains the beginning of nature and its most beautiful moments, yet a shift occurs in line 5 “Then leaf subsides to leaf,” showing how the moment of gold is gone and nature is simply nature once again- a different, more realistic kind of beauty. The reference to Eden in line 6 utilizes a mortality in the cycle of human life- birth, life and then eventually death. Life’s golden moments are temporary, just like the existence of a loved one or even one’s self. There are cycles of greatness and loss throughout life, as well as the poem. The poem concludes with a rhymed couplet that shows how dawn loses it’s luster and soon turns to day, showing that like the title, nothing gold can truly stay. Frost uses this poem as a felix culpa metaphor- displaying the fact that although temporary, the greatest moments would have no merit if they were not temporary. There is no good without bad and, conversely, there is no bad without good. Those golden moments in life and in the poem would never be appreciated fully if they were eternal, because there would be no ordinary

“Nothing gold can stay” (77). These wise words from Robert Frost state that nothing can stay young forever. Johnny Cade is a quiet member of the Greasers gang. Johnny’s home life is rough, his father beats him and his mother could care less about him. The Greasers are the good gang from Tulsa, Oklahoma. Their rivals, the Socs, are preps who spend their time partying, or tormenting the Greasers. Throughout this story, Johnny is depicted as sensitive, selfless, and strong.

To begin, the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” has different imagery than the poem “ The Beauty of Fall.” In one point in Frost’s poem, he uses an actual event that occurred in life to help readers fully understand his poem. In the text it states, “Then leaf subsides to leaf./ So Eden sank to grief”(Frost 5-6). The line is reminding readers about a biblical story about Adam and Eve. Eve was a girl who ate the forbidden apple and was banned from living in the Garden of Eden. On the other hand, “The Beauty of Fall” by Copper, Wovna, and Wovna just uses imagery of nature. The poem states, “Acorns on the ground,/ October was red and brown”(Cooper, Wovna, and Wovna 3-4). In the poem, it focuses on how nature changes throughout the season of fall. It starts with the month of October, which talks about the

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost is a poem filled with imagery about nature. He makes us see and even feel the beginning of a new spring day with his very first line “Nature’s first green is gold.” The golden hues that are cast in the mornings light on the trees and filter through the leaves, lets us see the beauty and calmness that is the serenity and purity of the sunrise. This glorious golden hue does not last very long, as shown by the line, “Her hardest hue to hold.” He is showing us that as the sun continues to rise, the light becomes harsher in its brightness and the subtlety of colors become fleeting in their beauty.

The title of Robert Frosts poem was not obvious as to the meaning. In the shorter, eightlined version the poem appears to be about how good things dont last forever, but in the much longer poem we see his fear of the world ending. The title "Nothing Gold Can Stay" would not seem relevent without having read the poem.

Robert Frost utilizes many different figurative devices, imagery and allusions in his poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” to reveal to the audience that every beautiful thing will come to an end, and any pure or permanent thing will eventually appear false or temporary. These ideas combined with metaphors and alliterations dramatizes the truth of the title, even though it sounds ironic in itself. His allusion and use of different images, depicted in the minds of the reader, further completes his idea on the topic of gold. The poem opens by talking about the beautiful colors of spring, establishing that nature is gold before it is green. Leaves start as flowers, but they do not stay forever. This natural process is related to the fall of the Garden

The novel The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger was written from the perspective of a high school boy by the name of Holden Caulfield. Throughout the book, Holden struggles with the fact that his brother his died and as a result, fails out of school and is depressed often. Not wanting to face his parents’ anger, he begins wandering around New York City for a few days reminiscing on childhood memories and trying to make sense of his life and why he’s forced to soon grow up. The poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost explains that nothing great is permanent. The author describes all things beautiful as extremely temporary and hard to hold on to. The common theme of The Catcher in the Rye and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is that good things can never last forever.

In the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” from Robert Frost, corruption first began in nature. The corruption in nature is first seen in the poem when “… leaf subsides to leaf” and “…dawn goes down to day” (Frost 5, 8). Frost says that nature was once so beautiful but by the conflict in the Garden of Eden it was corrupted. The conflict in the Garden of Eden was caused by corruption in humans. It seems that humans ruin everything good for the sake of themselves. Frost probably wrote this poem while sitting outside in the spring time reflecting on how people change for the worse. Face it, we all have been changed by either a middle school bully or boss, just like nature and humans were changed by corruption. Robert Frost is trying to tell the reader that good things can never stay because they soon become corrupted in nature and in humans.

The world has several great poets and numerous mind-blowing works, each with its own way of portraying its own message using symbolism to represent lessons of everyday life. Jane Flanders wrote the poem named “Cloud Painter” she shows the world from an artistic way, using a painter and his canvas to help the reader picture the true meaning behind the words and images created. Robert Frost takes on the same idea, but uses a less complex example so that it makes his work easy to understand while not revealing the actual meaning of the poem. Frost and Flanders are just two of the many poets that use nature as a way of explaining the very lessons in life. Each poet has a different way of presenting similar images but from a different perspective. Poems are short stories that have a meaning behind them without revealing them in obvious ways. Although some are confusing and may use a different style there are a few that present the same message even if they are written by a different poet. “Cloud Painter” written by Jane Flanders uses the clouds and other subjects of nature. Such as trees and the hills. to help the reader picture the true meaning behind her poem. Robert Frost's poem by the name of “Nothing Gold Can Stay” also takes the nature route to convey the point of his poems words and their Each has a unique way of creating an idea that most can relate to emotionally and physically.

In Robert Frost’s poem Nothing Gold can Stay, the theme is also about death like it also is in Out Out—, as well. Yet, this poem emphasizes more about the transience of life rather than the suddenness of life ending. “Nothing Gold can Stay” is about the appreciation for the golden days while the cycle of life continues and death becomes of each and every one of us.