Nothing Gold Can Stay

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Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost

Nothing Gold Can Stay is an intelligent poem written by American poet Robert Frost. This poem, full of metaphors, teaches us about both life and nature. It relays truths about how they both parallel each other in their ability to be tainted by grief.

In the first line, using metonymy, Frost makes reference to birth in nature, 'Nature's first green is gold' (Line 1). Birth in nature is most evident in the spring with the colour green, which represents fertility and youth, appearing. This green that is, in fact, gold means that birth in nature is rich, abundant, and beautiful, just like the actual metal. The line 'Her hardest hue to hold' is a personification of nature as a female figure, parallel to a human mother, who struggles to cling to that 'golden stage' of beauty and perfect innocence her offspring hold for 'only so an hour'. With a sense of melancholic inevitability, Frost states that this 'golden stage' will be tainted by grief. Using literary allusion, Frost refers to Eden, which 'sank to grief' (Line 6), as a symbol of original sin, to further instill the idea