Poetry Project
By: Alana Stein Period 5
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 of Nothing Gold Can Stay By Robert Frost
Nature’s first green is gold,
- Situation: The mood of the poem is gloomy and the poem itself tells a story. In the poem, Robert Frost is the speaker or poetic voice. Additionally, the tone of the speaker's attitude is nonchalant. The poem's form is a traditional one and I think the poem chose that form for his poem because it was more relative to people and easiest to comprehend.
- Structure: Also, there are eight lines in the poem. And the poem's form just goes straight down. The poem develops gradually and smoothly. There are images and ideas associated with it by free association. The poem does not circle back to where it began. The poem itself is 4 sentences long. These sentences are quite simple. To add to this, the verbs mostly occur within the area in front of the nouns because it makes it flow well and makes much more sense than just would otherwise. The punctiation include mostly within the poem is with commas and periods but there are also semi colons included. The punctuation does not always coincide with the end of the poetic line. The title means everything is temporary and to make the most and enjoy things while you can. It relates to the poem because the theme is common in nature and life as a whole.
- Language: This line uses figurative language to use colors as symbols of life and the fall with its ever changing colors of leaves. It also uses the color green as a way to represent success and wealth.
Her hardest hue to hold.
- Musical Devices and Language: This line of the poem is talking about life and how the greatest parts of it can only be enjoyed for short periods of time before they disappear. The poet was using the pronoun her to literally refer to nature. The musical device the poem has includes an iambic pentameter and rhyme pattern.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
- Language: This line is saying, in a persons' early life they have the ability to grow and change and be whomever they want to be. The opportunities and choices are infinite and everything is possible if one chooses to reach for it. Flowers open up just like individuals as previously stated when they are young. They give and give without worry of nothing being left. This relates sternly to the novel, The Giving Tree.
But only so an hour.
- Language and Structure: This entire poem contains a very formal language, as well as a strong diction. This line as well as the lines below are some of the very few lines within the poem that are very straightforward as well as make it quite difficult for the reader to interpret otherwise because of the lack of metaphors and variety of figurative language utilized within it.
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
- Musical Device and Language: This line in the poem discussed by using an expression that relates to how things in life come and go and turnover and restart all over again. It is like photosynthesis because in order for humans to continue to thrive and keep pushing forward, they must keep giving until nothing is left and then they will know they have given all they could in life and to others; therefore, living with the legacy of being great and kind.
So Eden sank to grief,
- Musical Device and Language: This relates to the giving tree literally and symbolically because of the cycle of life in which one must grieve in order to move on like the boy in the novel. Nature has its cycle. Life has its own. People live in cycles.
So dawn goes down to day.
- Language: This is figurative language for it is the end of a situation.
Nothing gold can stay.
- Literal: Eventually, everything comes to an end is what the last line finally is literally and figuratively saying.
Robert Frost Biography
Died: January 29, 1963 in Boston, Massachusetts
Early Life: When he was young, he left where he had been living in New England because he wanted to teach. It was through teaching he met the woman he later married.
When he was married, his wife had passed away of a disease and contrastingly, as a child he had grown up within a rural area. Thus, this poem could be a true representation of these events in his life through the figurative, literal, structure, situation, and musical devices incorporated into it.
Many of his pieces of literature and poems because of the history in his life have consisted of the common sayings or expressions from within the New England area, the people included, the exposition or setting, and the originating part of the culture of America.
MLA Citations
Bio.com. A&E Networks Television, n.d. Web. 09 Mar. 2015.
"My Favorites..." Pinterest. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.
"Nothing Last Forever Lyrics." YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.
"ON THE GIVING TREE." RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.
Robert Frost - Robert Frost Biography - Poem Hunter. "Robert Frost - Robert Frost Biography - Poem Hunter." Poemhunter.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2015.