Nothing Gold Can Stay Summary

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" reflects upon the transience of life and beauty. The first four lines work to build up a tension between beauty and its inevitable demise, while the last four focus on that demise. This poem does so through the use of natural imagery. We see leaves and flowers, green and gold; we hear about the Garden of Eden, a paradise. We also see these things change and decay and sink. The poem ends with a repetition of its title, which also functions as its thesis: these beautiful things—and all beautiful things—do not last.