Nothing Gold Can Stay Analysis Essay

In the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” by Robert Frost he talks in subliminals about how nothing perfect or what seems perfect can’t last forever. Such as “Carpe Diem,” which means to urge someone to live in the present and not worry about the future or the past.

Robert Frost moves from a soft and delicate tone to a more grim tone towards the end of the poem. He uses connotation from a positive to a negative situation. In the beginning Frost doesn't use certain words such as “down” and “grief” that give the reader a certain grim feeling. He uses words like “gold,” “flower,” and “green” as descriptive words. Frost uses personification here, “so Eden sank to grief.” Eden means the biblical Garden of Eden. He is giving human qualities to a garden by having it grieve. For a metaphor he use “nature’s first green is gold.” The two thing’s being compared are nature and gold. Another one he used was alliteration such as “Her hardest Hue to Hold.” The letter “h” is repeated in this line to emphasize “hardest.” Also he uses imagery. For example, for the first line I first imagined a beautiful garden and perfect flowers everywhere, then I imagined a leaf dying next to another leaf for “a leaf subsides to leaf.” Then I imagined a
beautiful garden dying all at once. And lastly, I thought of the sun going down in the morning for “so dawn goes down today.” After I researched his life, I interpreted this imagery a little different. Frost has dealt with death a lot in his lifetime which made me connect some dots. I interpreted the garden as his family. The garden was beautiful and springing to life, and then it dies, and it is no more, in correlation to what happens to his family. He “sank to grief” because the family he had and maybe didn't appreciate it until he lost it. The poet wants to put the reader through his own experience, and inform them that not everything lasts and people shouldn’t take things for granted. He uses many literary devices to give this theme.

My interpretation of this poem has a lot to do with “Carpe Diem.” I think this poem is about enjoying the present.
I try to appreciate the things I have now and not take things for granted. Even the little things. Such as the people in your life, current situations and always look at the positive side of things or the “gold” side of things. Because they may not be around for much longer. The poem talks about perfection and beauty that doesn't last. The author wrote the poem to compare from personal experience, to inform that it’s true in life. I think the poem is happening during the Spring time and possibly in the Garden of Eden to portray that that is where things are supposed to be perfect. But in reality they are not, and definitely not
forever.