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Analysis of poem "nothing gold can stay" by robert frost
Analysis of poem "nothing gold can stay" by robert frost
An essay about metaphor
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Morning reveals a golden beauty, but the beauty is temporary. In “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, Frost talks about how the beauty of nature always comes back. Robert Frost uses metaphors, hyperboles, and personification to show that nothing lasts forever. A metaphor is used to show the difference between what nature is, and what it appears to be. “ Nature's first green is gold,” writes Frost. Robert Frost uses a metaphor to compare the green colors in nature versus the golden color behind natures true beauty. For example, when you wake up the sun reflects on the grass and makes the world appear gold. Things may appear at a different value than they really are. In addition, Robert Frost uses a hyperbole to exaggerate how long the gold of nature
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.
"Nothing Gold Can Stay" also has a personal sense to it, but the author of this poem, Robert Frost, does not try to make the same connection with his readers. Allegory is put to use in this poem with the case of nature. Instead of using personal pronouns to draw the reader into the story as Owen does, Frost uses them to personify nature, always referring to it as "her". The opening lines of the poem say, "Nature's first green is gold / Her hardest hue to hold". This is a common occurrence in writing, especially when dealing with nature. By personifying nature as a woman, rather than just an object, the reader is able to connect more with that character. This is because it is easier for humans to relate to another person than it is for them to relate to an object, even if only on paper.
Robert Frost wrote poetry about nature and it is that nature that he used as symbols for life lessons. Many critics have been fascinated by the way that Frost could get so many meanings of life out of nature itself. Frost‘s poetry appeals to almost everyone because of his uncanny ability to tie in with many things that one is too familiar with and for many, that is life in itself. “Perhaps that is what keeps Robert Frost so alive today, even people who have never set foot in Vermont, in writing about New England, Frost is writing about everywhere” (294).
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.
Robert Frost wrote Nothing Gold Can Stay in 1923. Frost wrote this poem out of fear the world would end, he did not publish the entire poem, and modified the first section. The first section is what is featured in print. By not publishing the entire piece, he seemingly may have feared voicing his opinion, or the original work was for a certain audience. He also could have wanted to avoid sparking panic or riots, as people would believe anything they were told.
Robert Frost wrote Nothing Gold Can Stay in 1923, just five years after World War 1. His original poem contains more ideas about the world ending and his political views. Frost frequently spoke out on international affairs in his way. The style of the poem is confessional, at the time that it was written he was saying the world would end soon and in the beginning of the original version he says how things( like the world) are only pure and perfect for a little while before they start to die( Like WW1 was doing) so he has saying his personal experiences with the war and how the world was changing.
The author of Mending Wall and Nothing Gold Can Stay uses figurative language like metaphors and personification to demonstrate his overall tone. In Nothing Gold Can Stay, the author stated that “Natures first green is gold” meaning that the budding of a leaf is precious like gold is precious, having great value to people. When Robert Frost stated “Her hardest hue to hold...Her early leaf's a flower,” he was using personification acting as if nature, itself, was an actual person giving birth to a budding flower. He talks about leaves and flowers only lasting for a short time; in fact, only an hour to demonstrate his overall tone that nothing good stays and beauty is not permanent. He talks about the dawn of day also being extremely short
According to John F. Lynen, “Frost sees in nature a symbol of man’s relation to the world. Though he writes about a forest or a wildflower, his real subject is humanity…his concept of nature…is a paradox and it points toward the greater paradox in man himself” (4,5).
Everyone needs a sense of morals in life. These morals can be learned from family members, past experiences or even nature. Robert Frost takes imagery, emotion, symbolism, and he often uses nature in his poetry to not only paint a picture in the readers mind, but also to create a more of each work.
Robert Frost is known for his poems about nature, he writes about trees, flowers, and animals. This is a common misconception, Robert Frost is more than someone who writes a happy poem about nature. The elements of nature he uses are symbolic of something more, something darker, and something that needs close attention to be discovered. Flowers might not always represent beauty in Robert Frost’s poetry. Symbolism is present in every line of the nature’s poet’s poems.
...uses his poetry to celebrate, compare, and contrast the beauty of nature and rural living. Throughout Frost’s poetry he draws upon the beauty of nature to build up vast amounts of scenery. To contrast from nature, Frost also uses the integration of industrialized rural life. Frost uses nature to build the beauty in his poetry, but also uses it to say things that cannot be said with words alone. Heller once wisely spoke: “Maybe freedom really is nothing left to lose. You had it once in childhood, when it was okay to climb a tree, to paint a crazy picture and wipe out on your bike, to get hurt. The spirit of risk gradually takes its leave. It follows the wild cries of joy and pain down the wind, through the hedgerow, growing ever fainter. What was that sound? A dog barking far off? That was our life calling to us, the one that was vigorous and undefended and curious.”
Robert Frost is an amazing poet that many admire today. He is an inspiration to many poets today. His themes and ideas are wonderful and are valued by many. His themes are plentiful however a main one used is the theme of nature. Frost uses nature to express his views as well as to make his poetry interesting and easy to imagine in your mind through the detail he supplies.
Robert Frost, a poet that mastered the imagery of nature through his words. Such vivid details compressed in a few stanzas explains the brilliancy of his writing. He was born on March 26, 1874, in San Francisco. By the 1920s, he was the most celebrated poet in America; with his fame and honor increasing as well. His poems created themes like nature, communication, everyday life, isolation of the individual, duty, rationality versus imagination, and rural life versus urban life. The most controversial theme of this poems is nature and if his poems have a dark side in them. Readers can easily be guided to the fact that his poems are centered on nature; however, it is not. Frost himself says, "I am not a nature poet. There is almost a person in
Nature has inspired countless poets from primitive times to the present. They have used it as a metaphor for virtually all human emotions-his stormy brow, her sky blue eyes, as wild as a summer storm. Very few, however, have so masterfully crafted their verse to fully express the range of nature’s power and influence, or suited the tone of a poem to encompass both human nature and ‘true’ nature. This is true in the poetic works of Robert Frost. The aspects of nature that are continually demonstrated in the poems of Frost symbolize both the physical world and its changes, and the nature of humans.