The title "Nothing Gold Can Stay" has a bitter meaning creeping behind the words. Not only is it a poem Johnny recited to Ponyboy in the book The Outsiders, but he also made sure the reader and Ponyboy knew the meaning by engraving the poem into their hearts when he passed away. By saying "Nothing gold can stay" means that everything that is perfect can't stay perfect forever. Johnny also showed that all good things must come to an end. Robert Frost's choice of words start off with introducing the topic of nature, using "Nature's first green is gold. Her hardest hue to hold." As a way to sneak the meaning in with an analogy. Since a flower is beautiful once it blooms, there is also a possibility that later on the flower can wilt and turn into something uglier than it originally was. "Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour.." Gives the meaning that even a beautiful flower can also rot. "Then leaf subsides to leaf.." Has the …show more content…
The last two lines say, "So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay." Dawn is mostly when the sun first starts to rise, coloring the sky a deep orange. But the sunrise can't last forever and the golden hue of the sky leaves as morning goes by. Robert Frost makes the topic of "being perfect" seem achievable, but only for a short amount of time. Imagery is a heavy use in this poem, using the visuals of a dying flower to the color of the sky when it rises. "Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf.." Helps the reader imagine a golden flower that recently blossomed, only to slowly die. "So dawn goes down to day." Keeps the image of a sunrise on the horizon, giving the orange or golden color in the sky. But like a sunset, the sun can't stay in one spot. The golden hue changes to a different color once the sun moves from it's
Both Frost and Caulfield have the desire for beautiful things to last forever. Holden Caulfield recalls a time when he and Jane were younger, they would be playing checkers, and Jane would refuse to move her kings from the back row. It wasn’t any kind of a strategy, nor was it for any particular reason, besides the reason that Jane just happened to like the way they look back there. “She wouldn’t move any of her kings. What she’d do, when she’d get a king, she wouldn’t move it. She’d just leave it in the back row. She’d get them all lined up in the back row. Then she’d never use them. She just liked the way they looked when they were in the back row.” (Salinger, 31-32)Another example is when Holden is watching Phoebe go around and around on the carousel. He sees this moment as a beautiful thing that he wants to preserve. Robert Frost has the same idea when he says “Nature’s first green is gold, her hardest hue to hold”. He’s saying that this first green of nature is so beautiful, but there is no way to hold on to it no matter how much you’d like to.
The poem states that everything eventually comes to an end and that not even gold can remain unchanged. The poem explains this theme with many metaphors about everything that’s coming to an end. Freeman explains that “Even the poem's rhymes contribute to this sense of inevitability: Nature's gold we (or She) cannot hold; the flower lasts only an hour; the post flower leaf is like Eden's grief; the coming of day means that dawn's gold cannot stay”(2). The poem explains that everything has a natural cycle and that nothing lasts forever. When the poem states “nothing can stay gold”, Frost looks back at the flower and the time of day and implies that it all comes to an end.
The first example from the novel that supports the theme about “Staying Gold” is when Johnny and ponyboy are watching the sunrise and when Ponyboy said, “Too bad it couldn't stay like that all the time” (77). This is a perfect example of Ponyboy and Johnny enjoying the moment even though they are on the run.
Adding on to the previous paragraph, Frost in the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” Frost uses an allusion in “So Eden sank to grief So dawn goes down to day Nothing gold can stay”(lines 6-8). This is an allusion because it refers to the story of Adam and Eve in which both are in paradise but are soon thrown out after giving in to temptation. This helps to convey the
The poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” means that nothing good can stay, in other words, you won’t always have that goodness and innocence within you. The poem begins when you are first born, which is when you are gold, innocent and pure of heart, but as you mature you commence to make dreadful decisions. As you continue making bad decisions your gold begins to dwindle because you are no longer pure of heart, for you have now committed several sins. These sins include being rude and disrespectful, having envy of others and much more dreadful decisions one may take. Essentially being the meaning of the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay”.
Frost brings this concept of temporary happiness and beauty to life in this quote, “Her early leaf’s a flower; / But only so an hour” (line 3-4). The image of a flower dying shortly after its bloom unites with the story of Allie and his unfortunate death. Allie’s time with Holden was limited, but it was part of the natural process that exists in everyone's life. The time when Allie was alive was filled with happiness, but when he departed Holden was faced with a feeling of emptiness. The allusion “Eden sank to grief” also implies a similar message. Eden fell to sadness when sin entered the world just as when Allie died, Holden entered into a time of deep despair. These quotes show reminders of how time passes and how people must continue our lives dealing with
Everything that is ever perfect only lasts a limited amount of time. Robert Frost, in his poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay, explains with very few words what it may interpret, yet the reader must look beyond the exterior of the poem to discover the underlying message that Frost intelligently disguised. To begin with, Frost’s first two lines are, “Nature's first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.” these lines could be taken that a perfect moment in life, is like a sunrise, it is superb the few seconds it lasts. Next, in the poem is, “Her early leaf's a flower; But only so an hour.” this may sense that when in Outsiders Ponyboy and
As Ponyboy is sitting with Johnny watching the sunset at the old abandoned church they had been staying at for a few nights after killing a soc and running away from home. As they sit talking about how pretty the sunset is “to bad it couldn’t stay like that all the time, nothing gold can stay” (P 77) Ponyboy said which reminded him of the poem. He recites it to Johnny they both really like the poem but neither of the are sure what it means . Over time they seem to figure out that it means, to stay good is to stay good or pure. Theses two words change Ponyboy's life using “stay gold” as a goal helps Ponyboy stay on the right track and look at life more positively. The church reminds him of the poem because the sunset is beautiful but it fades fast.
The Tragic Impermanence of Youth in Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay In his poem "Nothing Gold can Stay", Robert Frost names youth and its attributes as invaluable. Using nature as an example, Frost relates the earliest green of a newborn plant to gold; its first leaves are equated with flowers. However, to hold something as fleeting as youth in the highest of esteems is to set one's self up for tragedy. The laws of the Universe cast the glories of youth into an unquestionable state of impermanence.
“Nothing Gold Can Stay” was about remaining young, keeping your innocence, and keeping your childhood while it's there. This ties into the book because the greasers were forced to grow up faster, learn from their mistakes, survive on their own, and be proud of who why are, even if they are not. In midst of this, they can get hardened and lose themselves in the ups-and for the greasers-downs of life. When after a turn of events, Johnny ends up in the hospital, he knows he lost his spark and his innocence. On his deathbed, Pony awaits him with a forced smile, wanting to reassure him, and is greeted with the words, “ Stay gold Ponyboy. Stay gold…,” before laying down on his pillow and closing his eyes forever(148). After Johnny dies, Pony realizes he meant for him to keep his qualities, for they were rare like gold, and to remain the same person, choosing his own path, away from hoods and
The meaning of the title of this poem are not obvious because it tells nothing about anything staying gold.
The temporal setting of the poem is first introduced in the first stanza, where the tranquility and picturesque beauty of nature is captured through the introduction of an Autumn Landscape. Initially, the Autumnal setting of the poem establishes the nostalgic and melancholy tone of the poem, reflecting the poet's personal context. The use of vivid imagery, "the water/Mirrors a still sky", acts to combine the sky and water into a single, endless entity. This feature, along with the introduces the timelessness and eternality of the natural world by capturing the stillness of the heavens and relating it to the Autumn setting the persona is witnessing. However, a central tension is created throu...
The poem is showing how many people are questioning the way Frost conducts himself and his happiness. Everything in Frost’s poem up until the last stanza is dark and depressing. An example of this is, “Between the woods and frozen lake The darkest evening of the year.” (Frost, Lines 7 and 8). Frost is so consumed in the sadness, that its very dark around him. The last stanza is where Frost’s hopefulness is presented. The happiness is hinted towards, “The woods are lovely, dark and deep, But I have promises to keep, And miles to go before I sleep, And miles to go before I sleep.” (Frost, Lines 13 to 16). He has promised himself to always keep moving forward and focusing on the goodness that life has to offer. Frost knows that he isn’t quite there yet, but he will not give up. He emphasizes his perseverance by reaping himself twice when he says “And miles to go before I sleep,” (Frost, Line 15). He had a break through and knows that he cannot give up. He is taking the little bit of happiness he knows to transform his life completely too where he is happy with every aspect of it. He is taking the hope that he does have and running with it, not looking back at the despair he feels that surrounds
The fourth line reads “[a] flowery tale more sweetly than our rhyme” (4). The words “flower” and “sweetly” appeal to the sense of smell and lighten the mood of the poem. When a flower is brought up into conversation it immediately brightens the mood. Keats lightened the mood by adding the natural imagery of a happy subject such as a flower. Before these verses were added, the first stanza of the poem was rather dark and did not carry the theme as well as it does after the imagery was added. The imagery not only illuminates the poem but emphasizes the word beautiful in the theme. Keats also uses nature imagery in line five, when he states “what leaf-fring’d legend haunts about thy shape” (5). This adds to the natural imagery in the verse before and lightens the mood even more. The first stanza is written in Keats poem is an introduction to the stories found on the urn and the imagery helps to lighten the dark
Pritchard, William H. "On "Nothing Gold Can Stay"" Welcome to English « Department of English, College of LAS, University of Illinois. 1984. Web. 03 May 2011. .