Preview

Nothing Gold Can Stay Poem Analysis

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
839 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Nothing Gold Can Stay Poem Analysis
Gold Turns To Grey
As humans, throughout our lifetime we will be faced with a moment of life altering decisions, these decisions we make will impact how we live our life. As time passes and we grow older, closer to death, it is the question of have we preserved our gold throughout the years. Poet Robert Frost challenges the act of keeping our gold in his deceptively simple poems “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and poet Edward Field’s “Icarus” demonstrates a character dealing with the loss of their gold. In these poems Frost and Field use imagery, diction, and allusion convey that these two poems compliments and contrast each other. The Robert Frost was a remarkable poet that people today still read his work, his poems were exceptional and always
…show more content…
Field’s use of allusion is the poem, the character of Icarus is actually a historical Greek story about how Icarus was once a Greek God and has fallen. The poem is more than a Greek tale, it extends to Icarus surviving his fall and how he regrets the decision he made when he was once a god. Throughout the poem it is well shown that Icarus drowns himself in self-pity wishing he had died rather than live the life he lives now. Additionally, Field creates a modern day setting using modern diction, “What was he doing aging in a suburb?” (18) and, “But now rides commuter trains” (28), with modern diction Field deems the tale of Icarus no longer being a myth, but rather an everyday story life. This supports the idea of Icarus life being unsatisfying and in a bigger that everyday life is boring and humdrum. Field uses imagery to generate a dull and dark contemporary image, he does that in the poem when he says “Only the feathers floating around the hat” (1), “Never dreaming that the gray, respectable suit” (11) and, “And nightly Icarus probes his wound” (21), Field’s use of weary imagery creates a world that is jaded and where one would not want to experience, yet, Icarus is caught in its grasp of failure and becomes obsessive of it. Field excellently demonstrates the aftermath of losing one’s beauty, and youthful …show more content…
Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” deals with the Frost challenge, if a person can keep their gold throughout their life on earth, with Field's poem "Icarus" it is the tale of modern day Icarus who has lost his gold and in the poem it shows how bland Icarus's life has become. They compliment each other in a way that Frost’s poem applies to the character of Icarus in Field’s poem, unfortunately, Icarus was not able to hold his hue, Icarus became grey, and grey represents dullness which is what his life has become too. The common theme of keeping your gold is what makes the two poems compliment each other, and shows how the loss of a youthful spirit can diminish through

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    In my class we are reading the book, The Outsiders written by S.E Hinton. We also read the poem,” Nothing Gold Can Stay “ written by Robert Frost. The book has two groups, the greasers and Soc’s and between them there is a lot of conflict. In the poem it means things can’t stay forever. Chapter four of The Outsiders talks about how Johnny kills Bob one of the Soc’s, and they run away, and the poem,” Nothing Gold Can Stay” is about everything changes overtime.…

    • 349 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Nothing Gold Can Stay” means that nothing perfect can stay. In life, the best things are the ones that don’t last forever. The most beautiful things in life are the things that have the shortest life. In the poem, it says "Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold”, this means that the most beautiful color of nature is gold, but it also is the hardest color to last. In the book when Johnny refers to “Nothing Gold Can Stay” he is telling Ponyboy to stay with all that innocence that they had in their childhood. When the Greasers were small, they were innocent, but when they grew to adults, they became less innocent, violent, mean, rule breakers, etc… So what Johnny wants is that Ponyboy doesn’t become violent, mean, rule breaker,…

    • 171 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost and “Seasons of Gold” by Claudia Martell, Nevaeh Bruck, and Aaron Grant both have similarities and differences. Some are easy to spot and are hard to spot. Robert Frost uses longer and complicated words, while Claudia, Nevaeh, and Aaron use concise words. First of all, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” and “Seasons of Gold” have different meanings, one example is “ Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold.” This means that nothing new will always have its characteristics.…

    • 344 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is a modernist work because it has rejection of sentimentality and artificiality by saying nothing gold or good can stay. In this poem it says at the start everything is gold or perfect then it goes away in the end which has loss of faith. It is rejecting Eden as a hero and who is flawed.…

    • 641 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The poem “ Nothing Gold Can Stay” relates to real life because the paris attack at the outdoor concert by ISIS(www.CNN News.com) that has a big impact on real life. Because all of the people that were lost in the attack were gold to someone . And sadly they got killed so they couldn’t stay on earth for that long so there for the theme nothing gold can stay comes into play. The theme is trying to describe to people that the best things in life may not always stay there or be there when you need them the most.…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” the themes of youth & Innocence are conveyed throughout the poem. In the text the elements of title, setting/imagery, author's presentation of information, and ideas are used to express the theme in the poem. In the poem the author uses the element of the title to relate to the themes of innocence and youth because the title means, nothing good lasts…

    • 1104 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nothing Gold Can Stay was written by Robert Frost in 1923 and published in the Yale review in the October of that year. It was later published in the collection of New Hampshire. He was 45 years of age when the poem was written, during this time he was going through a period of recognizing grief and family tragedy.…

    • 541 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “The Seafarer” begins with an old sailor telling his tale of traveling the treacherous seas. He reflects on his difficult experiences, and he has an epiphany. He comes to the realization that the glory of the old days has vanished. He then questions his culture's custom of pouring gold over the dead. He knows that everything that his people regard as treasure possesses no value like fools gold. Robert Frost also teaches us that nothing gold can last in this world. Throughout his poem, he uses similes, metaphors, and other literary devices to represent time tarnishing the things we hold precious. The speakers of both poems allude to the Garden of Eden's drainage of beauty by the gruesome design of time. This shows us that all beauty disappears. Furthermore, the poets show us that nothing is permanent. In the Anglo Saxon poem, “The Seafarer” the speaker explained that the magnificent kingdom no longer has a stable government. While Frost describes nature's first gold as green, nature also has an inescapable fate for that flower. When the seasons change the once beautiful flower will die. Both poems teach us to take pride in world's unique beauty.…

    • 276 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Field paints imagery throughout the poem in order to lunge the Icarus myth into a darkly contemporary setting. For example, “ Never dreaming that the gray, respectable suit concealed arms that had controlled huge wings.” This image establishes the dull aspects of modern…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Edward Field Icarus

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Field also uses imagery to change the poem to a contemporary. Field uses imagery to build a picture in our head of the modern world Icarus lives in “Had swum away, coming at last to the city Where he rented a house and tended the garden.” (8 and 9) This builds an image of a house in the suburbs in the modern day. Also, Field uses the neighbor’s actions “They would have answered with a shocked, uncomprehending stare.” (15) This makes an image in our head of the neighbors looking shocked about the idea that Icarus flew in feather…

    • 430 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Robert Frost's purpose is to illustrate the way of life and growing up in order to remind young people that life is short and you have to make the best out of it for it to be “gold”. In “Nothing Gold Can Stay” the author establishes a calm yet didactic tone for readers…

    • 174 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the lyric poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost, it describes the gorgeousness of nature in the morning sun by saying it was comparable to gold or a flower, and explains how it is saddening that it would go away when it nears day. And, with the use of a lyric poem which is a poem that expresses the thoughts or emotion of the speaker and it involves the use of a rhyme scheme he was able to explain his thought and emotions more clearly to the reader. Although the poem explains how nature is incomparably beautiful in the morning and sadly disappears closer to the day, he is able to illustrate the underlying meaning through the use of metaphors, personification, and…

    • 125 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Poetry and Icarus

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The fateful tale of Icarus has been adapted in multiple ways in poetry and in paintings. In “Icarus”, a poem by Edward Field, a popular mythological character from long ago is transformed into the vastly different reality of a more contemporary world. Irony and figurative language are essential elements of Field’s version of the tale of Icarus, who is immersed into the twentieth century.…

    • 282 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nothing Gold Can Stay Robert Frost is one of the greatest poets of our time, and “Nothing gold can stay” is one of the many great poems I love by him. “Nothing gold can stay” holds a special place in my heart due to it being my very last show in the Laker Marching band. Of my three years of being in Color-guard I learned to embody music, books, and poems. Spending hundreds of hours on a show based off of this poem, it brought the meaning of it to me to new heights. At the end of the year I did not know it would be my last, but I am certainly happy with how I can compare my marching career to my last performance, the line “nothing gold can stay” resonates with me leaving the band and all the good things I had going for myself within the Color-guard, but that it was okay to leave because it was for my own good.…

    • 524 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Robert Frost Research Paper

    • 2980 Words
    • 12 Pages

    “I have said that Mr. Frost’s work is almost photographic. The pictures, the characters, are reproduced directly from life; they are burnt into his mind as though it were a sensitive plate.” (Lowell 222). Imagery builds a picture in one’s mind to help depict what moral Robert Frost is trying to produce. In the “The Road Not Taken” imagery is used, for example, in the line, “Two roads diverge in a yellow wood.” By Frost saying in a yellow wood, he is using imagery to infer that it is autumn and the leaves are falling. Then in the stanza, “And be one traveler, long I stood/ and looked down one as far as I could/ to where it bent in the undergrowth.” Frost creates a picture of a person looking down two different paths, deciding which path would be the better choice. The Moral in the poem “The Road Not Taken” is being independent and taking a different path than what others may have chosen imagery is also used in the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” It is shown by the stanza, “Nature’s first green is gold/ her hardest hue to hold. / her early leaf’s a flower; / but only so an hour.” This gives a strong image of the green leaves of spring and beautiful flowers blooming finally…

    • 2980 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Better Essays