Analysis: Nothing Gold Can Stay

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.

Analysis

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" was written by Robert Frost in 1923, and firstly published in the Yale Review in October of the same year. The poem focuses on the inevitability of loss and how everything in Earth has its cycle. In this peom, R. Frost point out that beautiful and perfect things will eventually fade away.

He clearly implied it by providing a number of examples of that in every line of the poem. Nature’s first green is gold, the first line give us the backround and setting of the poem, spring. In spring time, the sun light is a bit golder that usual. The first lind gives picture to us when the trees and bushes all nourished by the golden light of sun in the spring. Her hardest hue to hold, Frost told us that gold, the color that symbolized wealth and luxuriosity,  is the hardest color of nature to keep. Her early leaf’s a flower, the first leaf of nature is a flower. In spring, trees and bushes bloom with flowers, the blooms will die and fall, then replaced with green leaves in the summer. But only so an hour, the beautiful flower does not bloom for long time. Its beauty will fade away. Then leaf subsides to leaf, implies that the first leaf will drop down and give space for another fresh leaf. The first leaf should lower itself and become the second as its place is taken by the new fresh leaf. So Eden sank to grief. So dawn goes down to day, the golden light of the sun rise in the morning slowly perish and change into the scathing heat of a summer day. Nothing gold can stay, the poem closed with strong line that emphasized and reminds us the main idea of the poem.

Although the poem is only consist of eight lines, it brings messages in its beautiful rhyme and alliterationon. The rhyme scheme of the poem (AABBCCDD) make the poem fun to read and pleased to listen yet easy to remembered. There are several alliterative lines: line 1 green is gold, line 2 Her hardest hue, line 6 So Eden sank, line 7 So dawn goes down.

For me, Robert Frost write and deliver his messge through the poem beautifully. There is hope for tomorrow. Even though the golden spring passed, the flower will bloom again next year. Everything has to go for transformation and has to change. It is a natural process. There is no man in Earth could avoid that, therefore, all we could do is cherish every moment we have with people we love and appreciate them even  more.

Ulfah Azizi Putri