Nothing Gold Can Stay, by Robert Frost

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.


Explication:

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" is one of Robert Frost's most famous poems. "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is featured in both the 1967 novel The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton and its 1983 film adaptation.

The poem is written in 4 pairs of rhyming couplets to make a total of 8 lines. The poem contains metaphors comparing nature to gold. There is also a reference/allusion to the Garden of Eden from the Bible. The Garden of Eden is symbolic of a brief time in human history of perfect harmony and utopia. It is the "gold" that Frost speaks of. But even Eden "sank to grief", echoing Frost's theme that nothing too good can last forever. The diction is very simple - no word is longer than two syllables. The poem is written in iambic trimeter (a line with three strong stresses usually spread across six syllables).

The poem is remarkably easy to follow, but the message is profound. The rhyming adds to the surface effect of simplicity. The diction is simple, but meticulously chosen. The poem is truly more than meets the eye.