Talk:Nothing Gold Can Stay (poem)

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Nothing Gold Can Stay (poem) is part of WikiProject Poetry, a WikiProject related to Poetry.
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Article Wikified: 23:28, 23 September 2007 (UTC)

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[edit] Fair use?

Personally, I think it's one of the best poems ever written. It's so true to life. I can relate to it.

I agree, it's a great poem. But is the inclusion fair use?--Grand Slam 7 | Talk 00:03, 16 January 2007 (UTC)

Wikisource seems to have no trouble with it. 68.39.174.238 18:40, 17 February 2007 (UTC)

It has passed out of copyright and is in the public domain, so there is no issues surrounding it's use here.

[edit] freaking awsome

it warms my heart

Answering exam questions on this is killing me. I hate poetry >:( 82.44.209.28

[edit] Reference in popular culture

I don't know what the format/style should be for this, or if it should be added at all, so I'll just mention it in the talk page.

The last three lines of this poem appear in an episode of the Simpsons, spoken by Sea Captain, while Bart gives a Viking Funeral for his toys (and thus his childhood).

I think the name of the episode is "Fat Man And Little Boy."

24.216.230.138 04:16, 1 April 2007 (UTC)Benjermin.

It also is a plot point and forms one of the main themes (and the most famous line - "Stay golden.") from the great American novel "The Outsiders."

[edit] Missing

The article is missing the poem's publication date and also the name of the collection in which it was published. --GentlemanGhost 23:02, 17 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] My thesis on an essay that i wrote about it

In “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, Robert Frost first introduces two ideas that are alike. Both ideas show something that is beautiful and full of life, yet is actually weak and can not last for long. With the downfall of Eden, Frost brings into the poem a metaphorical twist that highlights the end of a Golden Age. But unlike the first ideas, it is not nature that is ending this splendor, but instead someone’s action which are the cause. For it were the consequences of mankind that caused Eden to sink into darkness. Frost conveys this idea through his peculiar use of verbiage. Uniting the three ideas with his last line, Frost is clearly reasoning that man, and not nature, is the reason for beauty and youth to fade. ~Sebastian Augustine

[edit] General Meaning Section

and should be re-organized (possibly with external links to noted interpretations) or removed completely. I will do the latter in three days.Gary Joseph 03:37, 6 August 2007 (UTC)

I recently wrote a line-by-line interpretation of it. I passed it by my professor, who is published author and professor of English at CSUN, and he said it hit the nail on the head, as in it is the "chief, classic interpretation" of Frost's poem.

"Nature's first green is gold" Gold means valuable, and I think "nature's first green" is refering to youth. All plants and fruits when they are first rising into being are green. Somebody that is "green" is said to be new.

Here's gold's proper semantic express is "value". "Nature's first green" refers to youth. All incipient plants and fruits are green. Somebody that is "green" is said to be new.

"Her hardest hue to hold" Youth is the hardest quality for things born of nature to hold on to.

"Her early leafs a flower" The early leafs, being youngness. A flower, being something beautiful. That is to say, beauty is spent on the young.

"But only so an hour" "Only" implies that an hour is a short amount of time. Youth and beauty can be held for but a small length of time.

"So Eden sank to grief" Eden is the place where beauty and youth were to reign everlasting, yet, even Eden was robbed of this quality. This example brings forth the ultimate extreme, and shows the message to be true in any circumstance.

"So dawn goes down to day" When the sun goes from dawn to day, it goes upwards. Frost means to call attention to the word down, so that "dawn" and "day" may be more thoroughly inspected. Indeed, "dawn" and "day" carry figurative meaning. In Greek Mythology, when Oedipus was confronted by the Riddle of the Sphinx, "dawn" was compared to youth, while "day" was compared to middle-age. In that, Frost means to convey that youth will fade just as the sun goes from dawn to day.

"Nothing gold can stay" Nothing can stay young and beautiful forever. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sytar (talk • contribs) 01:24, 1 September 2007 (UTC)


[edit] Symbolic Words

(I took this out of the main article - it has no references, and is all opinion. Unless references can be cited for interpretations, they shouldn't be used 138.38.217.149 (talk) 10:01, 29 May 2008 (UTC))

  • Like many of Frost's poems, or most poems in general, there are possibly hidden meanings tucked carefully behind words or phrases within it. Here is a list of words that have been analyzed and interpreted, although there exists the possibility they have some other symbolism:

Gold- Stands for what Frost believes to be perfect.
Nature- Translates to Garden of Eden. Clarified by Frost on line six.
Leaf- The beginning of humanity, or humankind.
Hue- The current state of humanity. No relevance to an actual shade of color.
Flower- Naturally, we think of beauty; however, Frost dictates on line six that the loss of the flower creates a grief of ‘biblical’ proportions. Knowing that a loss of mere beauty would not have felled something as epic as the Garden of Eden, we conclude that the flower also represents purity.
Hour- The flower lasts only an hour. If proportionally compared to a person, Frost is saying people may achieve longevity but can only remain pure and beautiful for a very short time. This can also be compared with the biblical reference in Genesis, Garden of Eden. Nothing gold can ever stay gold forever.

  • In The Outsiders (novel) by S.E. Hinton Johnny writes in a letter to Ponyboy that Frost meant that gold was like childhood. This is why his dying word to Pony are "Stay gold". Johnny means that he should keep the joy of childhood inside him and never let it go.