ENG125: Introduction to Literature
Instructor Jennifer Miller
February 13, 1013
Reading “Nothing Can Stay Gold” by Robert Frost I saw that he utilized end rhymes, symbols, imagery, religious grander of illusion and metaphors. Nature’s first sprout of life is as pure as gold. “Nature’s first green is gold” means that when she is young and naïve but innocent at the same time. “Her hardest hue to hold” means that the young girl is now starting to see what this world has to offer. “Her early leaf’s a flower” means that she is as pure as a flower , which represents beauty and care. “But only so an hour.” Means that you can have that innocence but for so long. “Then leaf subsides to leaf “means that she is finally seeing or understanding who she is in her reflection as she contemplates about life. “So Eden sank to grief” means that what was once there is no longer because like gold, it tarnished. “So dawn goes down to day” means that today is now old like gold and tomorrow is someone or something new. “Nothing gold can stay” means that we should treasure our life’s memories forever because we cannot get it back.
In a nutshell, someone that is great or pure as gold cannot stay for a long time. One must treasure the golden moments because we might not get it back. Memories can and do last a lifetime. The golden memories can continue to live in one’s heart. Life is a cycle, and like in any cycle there is a beginning of innocence and an ending of repercussions. There was a sincere message and ironic aspects of nature’s expressions. Filled with countless literary elements; end rhymes, symbolism, religious grander of illusions, imagery and metaphor help readers like myself identify with the poem.
In the sixth stanza, imagery came about, “So Eden sank to grief”, the public knowledge, precise observation, and faith. As it says in the Noble Qur’an about the disobedience of Adam and Eve falling into their own desires “And O Adam! Dwell you and your wife in Paradise and eat thereof as you both wish, but approach not this tree, otherwise you will be among the Zalimun (Criminals and wrongdoers.) (The Noble Qur’an, Surat 7, Al-Araf, Ayat 19) “ The devil whispered suggestions to them both in order to uncover that which was hidden from them of their private parts (before); he said “ Your lord did not forbid you this tree except that you should become angels or become of the immortals” ( The Noble Qur’an, Surat 7, Al-Araf, Ayat 20)
In conclusion, this poem may have been short but I got a lot out of it. I have been reading Robert Frost poems ever since I was in high school and it seems like every poem that I have read, it goes with my life. This poem had very sentimental value to me and my life and that is what interested me about this poem.
References: 1. Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature[->0]. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc. 2. The Noble Qur’an
[->0] - http://outboundsso.next.ecollege.com/default/launch.ed?ssoType=CDMS&redirectUrl=https://content.ashford.edu/ssologin?bookcode=AUENG125.10.2
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
“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 -
To me, the poem appears to be comparing our youthful years as being as valuable as gold. We are to enjoy our time when we are young for it is the "…hardest hue to hold…" on to. It is also saying that our childhood years are very short and feels like "…but only so an hour…" As we grow older, our garden of "…Eden sank to grief…" The beginning of our life will quickly end as "…dawn goes down to day…" So in the end "…nothing gold can stay…" which refers to the end of our innocence. (All quotes taken from…
- 555 Words
- 3 Pages
Good 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 -
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 -
“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 than “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, a poem in which the metaphors of Eden and the…
- 791 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Dating back to as far as the epic of Gilgamesh, literature has explored the most prevalent aspect of human existence, journeys. Everything is a journey in life; we go through journeys to discover things about ourselves and the world around us. It’s said that to truly learn something you have to do it yourself, but we don’t have the time to go on enough journeys to quench our cravings for answers. That’s why literature has offered us the chance to learn something, without actually doing it, so that we can learn the message from a journey, without actually going on it.…
- 910 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
It begins with a bit of a hopeful and peaceful tone. The first lie states, “ Nature’s first green is gold”. This relates to a person’s childhood potentially being the best time of their life. The poem gets somber a little while later when talking about how quickly childhood can fade away. Lines five through eight of the poem say, “Then leaf subsides to leaf, So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day Nothing gold can stay.” The idea that many people take away from this is that as you grow older, life becomes more and more difficult, so your childhood should be cherished. This is surely a motto to live…
- 468 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Abortion is a topic that has been argued for years. Many people are for or against it. Many people do not know how they feel about it either. An abortion is when a women decides she does want to have a child anymore when already conceived. She will have a doctor at an abortion clinic help her rid of the fetus. There are many ways to do this, depending on the trimester of the baby. She will eventually go to the abortion clinic and have the procedure done to no longer have the baby in her but, it will no longer have a life.…
- 1036 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
Robert Frost desires his poetry to “begin in delight and end in wisdom.” He achieves this as seen in “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” using metaphors, soft alliterations and wise biblical allusions showing that everything beautiful and young comes to an end.…
- 332 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Frost explains that nothing, especially that which is perfect and beautiful, can last forever. Frost says, "Nature's first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold, Her early leafs a flower, but only so an hour," meaning that "gold" is considered beautiful and perfect but is the hardest to keep. Gold will only last a short time. The above quote from the poem also means that the best things in life, represented by gold, can't last forever as represented by the second line of the poem. The poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost holds several meanings that relate beauty to life, staying young and beautiful, and that perfection is only temporary and easily lost. The poem also related to the novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton as well.…
- 428 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
Robert Frost makes an allusion to an accident that happened in Vermont back in 1916. He chooses to make an allusion back to Shakespeare's Macbeth. The allusion refers to the queen's life quickly ending after her chop to her head. She quickly bleeds to death. In "Out, Out," the boy carelessly drops the buzz saw after being distracted by a time of fulfillment known better as supper. Soon realizing the carelessness of his mistake, pleads to his sibling to not allow the doctor to amputate his appendage. The sunset alludes to the coming of darkness, known as death. The allusion also set irony to the setting, because sunset can also display a calm, serene atmosphere. The buzzing and rattling of the buzz saw represents the harsh labor the boy was forced to endure. Buzzing is the actual work and the rattling is the idle time between. The mountain acts as a barrier so that no noise or external factors can interfere with the coming disaster. Frost adds a tidbit more of irony when the boy's "rueful laugh" expels from his mouth, because rueful inspires pity but laughing represents glee.…
- 421 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In the poem ‘The Wood – Pile’ Robert Frost uses a very tight structure, it is a sum of one stanza which he has used in other poems such as “Out Out -”. This poem is first person narration, which is another thing that a lot of Frost poems share in common, the setting of the poem is introduced in the first line of the poem ‘the frozen swap’ this releases visual imagery straight away. The last two words of the first line of the poem ‘gray day’ Frost uses internal rhyme the theme of the poem is nature it is set outside and it also it involves tree’s and birds Frost tells the story using this as the stake and the prop is natural resources and the wood-pile is society and because we are using nature up, it is soon going to collapse.…
- 512 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
Poetry is considered to be a representational text in which one explores ideas by using symbols. Poetry can be interpreted many different ways and is even harder to interpret when the original author has come and gone. Poetry is an incredible form of literature because the way it has the ability to use the reader as part of its own power. In other words, poetry uses the feelings and past experiences of the reader to interpret things differently from one to another, sometimes not even by choice of the author. Two famous poets come to mind to anybody who has ever been in an English class, Robert Frost and E.E. Cummings. Both of these poets have had numerous famous pieces due to the fact that they both captivate the readers attention and can even keep them intrigued in a piece long after their first time reading it. A line such as one of the most memorable lines from Robert Frost, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” (1). Many recognize this line and many may have their own opinions on how to look at his poem ‘The Road Not Taken’. Another poem with a shared theme is E.E. Cummings poem “Anyone lived in a pretty how town” these two poems are very different in delivery and literary devises, but both have a common theme, a theme of how time goes on and the choices one makes, shapes who they become. This reoccurring theme is important because live doesn’t stop going it is a clock that will never stop ticking and every time the clock ticks we make a choice that shapes who we are and who we will be in the future.…
- 1536 Words
- 7 Pages
Better Essays -
Detailed Lesson Plan in Mathematics IV I.Objectives At the end of the lesson, the students should be able to: 1. Identify linear equation in two variables. 2. Solve and graph linear equation in two linear variables 3..Present solutions with accuracy and precision in ones work. II.Subject matt...…
- 2721 Words
- 10 Pages
Satisfactory Essays