6.4: “Nothing Gold Can Stay” -- Robert Frost

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Robert Frost’s poem, like many others, heavily utilizes the concept of metaphor, which refers to “carrying out a change.” Generally, metaphor works by comparing or equating known objects or actions with something that is unknown or to be explained, thereby deepening our understanding of and insight into unknown entities. Furthermore, not only can metaphor be a device for deepening understanding, but it can also offer a distinct and unique way of seeing or thinking about something.

Within a metaphor, as two unrelated things are compared, a specific quality of one person, object, idea, etc. is figuratively carried over to another. For example, if you say that you are “drowning in school work,” those aspects of drowning are being carried over to a different situation--school work-- that is otherwise unrelated to drowning.

So, what is the purpose of using a metaphor like this? One of the effects of using a metaphor is that it encourages readers to think about something familiar to them in a new way or from a different angle. If I never thought about how overwhelming school work can be, then this metaphor would prompt me to consider the way it overwhelms us to the point where we feel that we cannot breathe. For more practice with identifying metaphors, see the “Metaphor Chart” Activity.

As you learn more about the concept of metaphor, we encourage you to notice aspects of the word’s structure, spelling, and sound. Based on your background knowledge, what does the spelling of this word already tell you about its etymological origin? Among the words we’ve already studied, which might be related? To continue this investigation, see the “Metaphor Word Inquiry” Activity.

Before Reading Exercise

Previewing the Text: Robert Frost titled this poem “Nothing gold can stay”

What does this mean to you?

What does “gold” represent?

“Nothing Gold Can Stay”

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.

After Reading

After Reading “Nothing Gold Can Stay”

In the chart below, lines from the poem are provided in the column on the left. You can work individually or with others to determine the literal meaning of those lines. Next, we encourage you to think beyond the immediate setting or context of the poem to consider what those lines might suggest about other aspects of life more broadly. As you think about what that literal meaning could represent, record your thoughts in the “metaphorical” column on the right.

Text	Literal	Metaphorical
Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour.
So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.

1.How does this poem represent multiple levels of meaning? Can you identify any examples?

2.How does the multiplicity of meaning within the poem offer us a richer, more complete understanding of the world around us?

3. In Frost’s poem, he says that “Nothing gold can stay.” Can you think of other things in your life that are “gold.” Are these “golds” impermanent or do they stay, unlike Frost suggests?

4.Earlier in this book we made observations and questioned the areas of our lives that seem “natural.” How does Frost’s poem present other observations of nature? What kind of questions does it raise?

As you read about in the introduction to this section, the juxtaposition of multiple and possibly even contradictory viewpoints can create a productive tension that challenges our assumptions and pushes us to seek deeper understandings. As you read the next couple poems by Langston Hughes, consider the way they relate to that of Robert Frost. Do you notice any similar topics or ways of using language? Which differences do you observe?