Nothing Gold Can Stay

by Robert Frost

Short Poem

Genres: Poetry, Classics, School, Read For School

1 pages

First published January 1, 1923

About the author

Flinty, moody, plainspoken and deep, Robert Frost was one of America's most popular 20th-century poets. Frost was farming in Derry, New Hampshire when, at the age of 38, he sold the farm, uprooted his family and moved to England, where he devoted himself to his poetry. His first two books of verse, A Boy's Will (1913) and North of Boston (1914), were immediate successes. In 1915 he returned to the United States and continued to write while living in New Hampshire and then Vermont. His pastoral images of apple trees and stone fences -- along with his solitary, man-of-few-words poetic voice -- helped define the modern image of rural New England. Frost's poems include "Mending Wall" ("Good fences make good neighbors"), "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening" ("Whose woods these are I think I know"), and perhaps his most famous work, "The Road Not Taken" ("Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-- / I took the one less traveled by"). Frost was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for poetry four times: in 1924, 1931, 1937 and 1943. He also served as "Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress" from 1958-59; that position was renamed as Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry (or simply Poet Laureate) in 1986.

Frost recited his poem "The Gift Outright" at the 1961 inauguration of John F. Kennedy... Frost attended both Dartmouth College and Harvard, but did not graduate from either school... Frost preferred traditional rhyme and meter in poetry; his famous dismissal of free verse was, "I'd just as soon play tennis with the net down."

Reviews

[Sadia Mansoor · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

[Hasan Abidi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.


♥️🔖

[Fatima_reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Once you recognize how fleeting and precious certain moments are, you will appreciate them even more.All the good and beautiful things in life will eventually fade away.But this doesn't mean that we need to be depressed over those things.. As every beginning has it end and vice versa.

[Lydia Hugo · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” is a poem written by Robert Frost in 1923. The short, 8-line poem uses the imagery of sunrise’s impact on Nature as a metaphor for life and the loss of beauty and innocence as time goes by.

This poem connects to the concept of Experience in every aspect of its being. Taken quite literally, the poem explains the mysterious and even fantastic transformation that occurs within the hour that sunrises come and go. Sunrise makes nature “gold” for only one hour, making it the “hardest hue to hold”. Naturally, when the sun has risen completely in the sky, nature will return to its green color. The ending line, “nothing gold can stay,” indicates the necessity of the sun rising completely, meaning that nature must return to green. Metaphorically, this poem is very mournful in mood. The speaker laments the innocence and beauty that have been lost as time goes on and more experiences in life are accumulated. The allusion to “Eden [sinking] to grief” specifically points out the first loss of innocence during the Fall in the Garden of Eden. From that point onward, Adam and Eve were living in sin, dealing with the burdens of the pain that life brings. Just as Adam and Eve lost their innocence by that one turning point in the Garden, so all readers of this poem will have their own experience or set of experiences that caused a loss of innocence and pure beauty.

Middle schoolers will also have their own turning point in their life, regardless of how varying their experiences will have been. Whether it is just becoming older and leaving childhood behind, gaining new and disturbing knowledge about the world, losing a friend or family member, or going through a first breakup, all middle schoolers will have lived through something that results in innocence lost. This poem prompts lots of reflection.

A writing activity that would work well with this poem is “A Leads to B”. In this strategy, students identify a major change in their lives and then explain how this change came about. Basically, they are explaining how A led to B. Students should use the poem as a guiding force in their writing. Their major change should somehow be their own version of losing the “gold” hue in their life.

[Taylor Simon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short but beautifully written, ultimately providing the underlying message of the poem, being that life is short but ultimately beautiful. Robert Frost never really seems to dissapoint.

[Alien Bookreader · Rating 5 out of 5]

“So Eden sank to grief”

Short and bittersweet and applicable to so much of life. Every magical and exciting thing lasts only for an hour.

[Deer ✧.* · Rating 5 out of 5]

5/5 🌟

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

Short and simple. But beautifully written and very evocative.

[H.]

First read in The Outsiders.

Stay gold, Ponyboy.

[Carmen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.

I think that this speaks to the fact that in the beginning, in the birth of something the freshness, the miracle of the thing is fleeting. That new beginning is not a thing that can be grasped and held on to.

Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.

These lines seem to illustrate beautifully the transient nature of things. Of happiness and of beginnings. Of beauty and of life.


Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,

I believe that these lines paint a picture of lifes march forward. No matter what sins you may have committed or regrets you may have, life still goes on. You cannot go back. You must just keep marching forward.


So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

These lines convey to me the essence of life. Happiness comes in small, brief moments of time. The inevitable will come. You must show up for these small glimpses because they are brief.

In essence nothing lasts forever.

[Amelia (Taylors Version) · Rating 5 out of 5]

for school

[Amelia Bujar · Rating 5 out of 5]

FULL REVIEW ON MY WEBSITE
https://thebookcornerchronicles.com/2...

The entire uses throughout the entire poem the imagery of sunrise’s impact on Nature. Just as a metaphor for life and the loss of beauty and innocence as time goes by. And I truly loved that.

The writing style is hard to review in poems because they are short and poems have a specific tactic they are written in. But if we compare the writing style with in this poem with other poems than we will see that the writing style here was amazing and extremely good.

This poem sort of connects the dots between the concept of Experience in every aspect of its being. And the fact that this poem explains the mysterious and even fantastic transformation which happened within the hour that sunrises come and go really makes this poem very unique and good.

And the mood which this poem has really makes you think about these simple moments like seeing sunrise or sunset and how fast they actually pass.

[Preetam Chatterjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

The analogical technique of the poet, showing Nature and Man to be comparable, is fairly obvious. But this method fortifies the portrayal. The initial five lines of the poem are vivid and one may he led into thinking that the poet is bemoaning the impermanence of natural beauty. However, just then, the loss of beauty in the leaf --- in the change from gold to green --- is equated to the loss of incorruptibility in the Garden of Eden. Thus, the melancholy and inexorableness are tinged with the knowledge that venality is an essential part of mellowing. "So dawn goes down to day"; the usual process suggests that each man, too, experiences a comparable forfeiture as he advances from infancy to adulthood. The bright leaves, Eden, the dawn, the life of the ordinary man --- all are amalgamated in a solitary line of vision. The smallest things are able to enclosing the problem of man's destiny. Wonderful. Give it a go.

[Rouh || رُوح · Rating 5 out of 5]

The poem is both simple and richly evocative. I liked how he imaged that line "but only so an hour." hence, it's although the shortest line in the poem. How he said "So Eden sank to grief." giving a refrence of Adam and eve who had been brought down from a 'lateral' heaven to Earth, in a glimpse of an eye. Whatever the reasons are; Nothing lasts.

As I'd experienced grief and was threatened by depression, the very lesson I came up with, is savouring the little things, appreciating them. Never took something for granted. Learnt how to be grateful. Because either grief nor happiness could never last forever. They are all Temporary occasions, that we are facing in this life. Because we all going to die someday, that's certain. We will take nothing. So why don't try and live, never deny how blessed you are, be humble and enjoy your own life, not others.

[Nikauly Santana Reynoso · Rating 5 out of 5]

I know this is a poem but I’m so grateful for had read this poem. It reminds me of Daylight by Taylor Swift because she thought love had to be burning red but then she realized that it’s golden like daylight. Frost thinks that all the beautiful things are gold but everything fades with time cause nothing ever lasts forever and that’s why we have to value and appreciate the little moments and things in our lives because we don’t know when our end or fading in life is coming. 🤍

[s · Rating 5 out of 5]

The fleeting beauty of our universe is hard to capture in such simple words, in such a short poem, but Frost does so and makes it look easy. Life itself is a fleeting affair, and this poem pays homage to the quickly-fading nature of joy, youth, love, and human nature. This is a classic poem— and for excellent reason. Utterly iconic.

[Andy Hickman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Beautiful lament.
...


Nature's first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf's a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then leaf subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day,

Nothing gold can stay.

[Gabrielle Sheets · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite poems. I first read it in middle school and have come back to it year after year. When I first read it, I thought it was too grim and sad. But as I've gotten older, I see it more as romanticizing aging and finding comfort in the changes that occur over a lifetime.

[Έλλη · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

[Pearl Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loss is inevitable.

[Laura Groth]

<3

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

Was inspired to read this poem because of The Outsiders. (The movie, not the book.) It’s a beautiful poem. Got to love Robert Frost.

[Josh reading · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a gorgeous Robert Frost poem, time and seasons at play!

[livi · Rating 5 out of 5]

my favorite poem ever, i could go on about this poem forever. stay gold

[ally douglas? · Rating 3 out of 5]

wish I were Midas

[saroyami ˚₊۶ৎ˙⋆ · Rating 5 out of 5]

the outsiders ahhh poem

[J9 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reminds me of the song "Gold Dust" by Tori Amos.

[Lubat · Rating 2 out of 5]

Beauty must fade away.

[Cyndi Goodgame · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved teaching this with Be Careful What You Wish For unit.

[Dom Hargreaves · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was really pretty but really short so much to say apart from yeah it was really pretty!

[GldnAvery · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won't lie, I don't know many poems. But ever since I knew this one I fell in love with it. I specially love the final rhyme, it's so elegant yet so powerful and conclusive. I love short ones because they get to the point: no repetitiveness, just essence. It's more difficult to create a deeper story but certainly not impossible.

It's perfect.