"Nothing Gold Can Stay" Poetry Analysis Paper
Addison Bolick
Rhetoric 2
Dr. Stancil
18 February 2014
Nothing Gold Can Stay This poem dramatizes the very human desire to hold on to what they have deemed “golden.” Frost poem basically goes through the whole cycle of life and he is retelling the history of the world in only four rimmed couplets. He starts in the season of spring but quickly changes into fall which will lead to the end of something beautiful. Frost puts his symbolism to use as well. “Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold” (1, 2) is symbolism for wealth possibly and the word “gold” is symbolism for human commerce. While reading the speaker will make notice that between the physical and material level of existence, there is a constant pattern of loss or something that is considered great ending and losing the shine. This pattern is helpful in predicting why Frost decided “Nothing Gold Can Stay” was an appropriate title for his poem. The poem begins with the idea of nature and seasonal change, while this stands true, if the poem is read more closely and with greater attention to detail the reader will clearly see the link between seasonal changes and how it conveys a life cycle. Although Frost only wrote four rimmed couplets, he has created an explosion of genius throughout his poem, completely and in detail with so few words Frost describes life while using seasonal change as his symbolism. The syntax of the poem is not understood so easily at first but when the season changes are made clear the idea of a life-cycle becomes clearer because Frost made it so that the two can be easily related to one another. “Nature’s first green is gold” (1), clearly the poem’s setting is nature but we are talking about nature’s first green, which usually is related to spring. Spring is the young and adolescent years of life, or the “golden” years before maturity. Frost also conveys the idea of morning, when the sun rises and shines light on the earth making everything a
Rhetoric 2
Dr. Stancil
18 February 2014
Nothing Gold Can Stay This poem dramatizes the very human desire to hold on to what they have deemed “golden.” Frost poem basically goes through the whole cycle of life and he is retelling the history of the world in only four rimmed couplets. He starts in the season of spring but quickly changes into fall which will lead to the end of something beautiful. Frost puts his symbolism to use as well. “Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold” (1, 2) is symbolism for wealth possibly and the word “gold” is symbolism for human commerce. While reading the speaker will make notice that between the physical and material level of existence, there is a constant pattern of loss or something that is considered great ending and losing the shine. This pattern is helpful in predicting why Frost decided “Nothing Gold Can Stay” was an appropriate title for his poem. The poem begins with the idea of nature and seasonal change, while this stands true, if the poem is read more closely and with greater attention to detail the reader will clearly see the link between seasonal changes and how it conveys a life cycle. Although Frost only wrote four rimmed couplets, he has created an explosion of genius throughout his poem, completely and in detail with so few words Frost describes life while using seasonal change as his symbolism. The syntax of the poem is not understood so easily at first but when the season changes are made clear the idea of a life-cycle becomes clearer because Frost made it so that the two can be easily related to one another. “Nature’s first green is gold” (1), clearly the poem’s setting is nature but we are talking about nature’s first green, which usually is related to spring. Spring is the young and adolescent years of life, or the “golden” years before maturity. Frost also conveys the idea of morning, when the sun rises and shines light on the earth making everything a