Nothing Gold Can Stay Essay Questions

What does gold represent in the poem?

As gold is a precious metal, it is often used as a symbol of something valuable in literature. In this poem, Frost uses gold to symbolize the preciousness of youth. Overall, in the context of the poem gold represents something that is valuable but also can't last forever, as "nothing gold can stay."

Why does Frost use religious allusions in this poem?

In this poem, Frost mentions the Garden of Eden: "So Eden sank to grief." He does this to illustrate his argument about the transience of beautiful things, as nothing "gold" can last forever. The reference to Eden reflects this idea because the garden was once a paradise, but this state of perfection did not last. While such a reference might make this poem feel slightly dated, by describing Eden as "[sinking] to grief" Frost puts a new spin on the old story; rather than describing the fall of humanity, he all but anthropomorphizes Eden rather than focusing on God, Adam, or Eve. The image of Eden itself sinking to its knees or sinking into water—the ambiguity and concision of the image—removes it slightly from its usual religious context, while still retaining its power as a Biblical allusion engrained in much of the world's conscience.

How does Frost use seasons in this poem?

Seasons in this poem represent the fleetingness of all things good or beautiful. Spring is enchantingly beautiful, but it passes as "leaf subsides to leaf." Frost uses the movement from dawn to day similarly. Interestingly, the speaker does not mention summer turning to fall and winter, nor day turning to night, instead focusing on the transition from spring to summer, dawn to day. Since winter and night are more strongly associated with decay and death, these choices stand out. They emphasize the preciousness of those earliest stages; daytime and summer lack something that dawn and spring have. Furthermore, the poem retains some subtlety by avoiding more obvious symbols for death and decay.

How does this poem's form affect its content?

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" is simple and brief, and this amplifies the impact of its message. The speaker, in very few words, is able to evoke the beauty of spring, voice sorrow at its loss, and apply it to larger concepts. The use of rhyming couplets adds to that feeling of simplicity because the rhymes are clear and easy to pick up on. They also make the ending feel natural and satisfying, like the poem ends up where it is meant to; this feeling of coming full circle is emphasized by the final line being a repetition of the title. Finally, each line except for the last contains six syllables, while the last contains five. This change, though slight, adds to the impact of the final line.

What creates tension in this poem, and what part does that tension play in the poem?

Deceptively simple, this poem in fact shows Frost's firm grasp and deft usage not only of language but also of tension and release. The first and third line of the poem, "Nature's first green is gold" and "Her early leaf's a flower," if read independently, seem pastoral and romantic in the colloquial sense. Yet the descriptions of beauty each give way in the lines that follow—"Her hardest hue to hold" and "But only so an hour," respectively—creating a sense of tension and relief, of something being at first held back and then thrust upon the reader. The second half of the poem does not employ the same technique, perhaps because it could only work so many times before becoming stale and predictable; the tone becomes more openly somber in the final four lines. The sentence structure changes, too. While the first four lines are made of two sentences broken in half by a semicolon and a comma, the fifth line is its own sentence, the sixth and seventh one in total, and the eighth again its own short, declarative sentence. This destabilizes the reader slightly, creating a tension between our expectations and what appears on the page. The final result is a poem that appears straightforward, tidy, and traditional on the page, but in reality is a little off-kilter, just enough to make the reader feel uneasy but also to make that final line feel particularly resonant.