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, meaning and summary of Robert Frost's poem Nothing Gold Can Stay

327 Comments

  1. Kyle says:

    Robert frost was a genius a dreamer, a writer, but if not all those things he was a GAP(Great American Poet) This poem was his greatest work to me =D

  2. Rup rasik says:

    its really gave me feelings of life how we compare with nature.how happiness comes and how long itcan be so every thing is changable even nature so we also can be changed i felt it when i read this poem..

  3. BZarr says:

    Frost uses a great deal of imagery in his poems. This poem specifically takes the way colors change in nature to show the passage of time. Since the flower dies after a short amount of time and the Garden of Eden also falls, Frost refers to how no good thing lasts forever. When Frost uses the seasons as a metafor, it can also mean that those good times will eventually return.

  4. sam says:

    This poem has a great deal of imagery. I think that the imagery is used to describe how good things in life dont last forever. The poem is not just about nature but about life. Its a wonderful poem.

  5. Eric says:

    I believe that humans use more than they need. And that we use nature’s resources so much that it cannot reproduce its resources to keep our needs. Humans need to be careful with what we use because nature will eventually stop giving.

  6. Zeff says:

    I believe that this wonderful poem describes that human s and nature are innonence aand that everyone must try to keep this innonence that is the gold

  7. Jack says:

    After reading this peom, i came to a realization that this poem is closely related to Kanye Wests song “Gold Digger” its almost exactly the same

  8. noley says:

    I love this poem! I ts describing more than nature. Its describing life! His Life!

  9. ZAINAB says:

    HOW CAN I CREATE A BACKGROUND WHICH RTEFLECT ON A FLOWER POEM….:)

  10. lasey says:

    I luv this poem! it is so totally rad!

  11. Wani says:

    a friend sent me this poem, and i think it perfectly describes how the high moments in life can never last long. it can also descirbe ppl, r/ships, or even life itself… tht we can never expect a good thing to last forever. we should cherish it as they come. it’s a gorgeous piece of literature. and robert frost is an amazing poet. 🙂 cheers!

  12. Elina says:

    In this poem nature refers to human beings and beauties of this like flowers are properties of humans and the word “Gold” here refers to Autumn that the nature lose her beauties in it, this season like all seasons is short, it means that our time like autumn is so short,maybe the early leaf here refers to Adam who fell from Eden and that is why heaven sank to grief,all these points in this poem want to show us that no pleasure ever lasted forever.

  13. jane says:

    This poem is sweet and short i love the way that it explains something like this in such amount and words its like an onion with many layers it has differing meanings but the general thing i think its trying to give you is that everything must come to an end life,youth,beauty,materialistic items its a great poem.!

  14. lara keyworth says:

    I really liked this poem. I think he is referring to how things are constantly changing all around us and that good things cant last forever. He uses just the right words paint a beautiful picture in your mind, a picture that wont last very long but you will probably remember forever.

  15. Justin VanderVeen says:

    This instantly became one of my favorite pieces of literature. A poem that can invoke so many ideas and stir 308 people to comment with such an array of ideas inspired after being posted for only 18 days is incredible. I have just started to read Mr Frost, but the mood that he sets in many of his other works including this one comes across to me as lonelyness. He begins with a feeling of fresh, clean life and transitions into borderline despair and has the courage to end his poem this way. He uses such powerful and vibrant objects and places and themes in vibrantly contrasting ways. I especially like the innocence of nature’s first flower and purity of gold fading away to the melancholia of eden.

  16. Chelsea S. says:

    I love this poem soo much!

  17. chris cardinale says:

    In the poem nothing gold can stay is a very short but meaningful poem. he uses the line: “Her early leaf’s a flower; But only so an hour,” to show that in the begging of something that you are doing seems so right and the good thing to do but sometimes when u get to know the thing you are talking about it isn\’t what you thought it was. The main point of this is that things start off as plan but towards the end it is the total opposite from what you thought it would be.

  18. brandon Kreindel says:

    This poem not only applies to nature, but also to life in general. It describes the ups and downs in life
    pretty well. I also remember this poem from the book the “Outsiders.” It shows that good moments sometimes don’t last as long as they should.

  19. Celina Williamson says:

    This poem uses many colorful words that illustrate the passage of time and elucidate the idea that all things in life… youth, beauty, nature… they grow and change and eventually are gone altogether to become part of the circle of life. The allusion to Eden makes me think of the idea of innocence falling and of the change that is inevitable in life, of the decisions and lives we lead that ultimately become a fleeting and passing moment.

  20. Ashley Dien says:

    “Nothing Gold can Stay” by Robert Frost has a lot to say. True, Frost talks about the little pleasures in life but he also talks about us getting ahead of ourselves. Moving onto new things the second they come along. He says, “Her early leaf’s a flower;” then two stanzas down says, “Then leaf subsides to leaf”. A leaf at first bloom is everything. It’s gold. As soon as the flowers bud the leaf is just a leaf. This kind of reminds me of technology in our days. A new computer or digital camera comes out…a year or so later it’s considered old school. Frost attempts to remind us that those things that may seem old are still imortant. Don’t forget to stop and appreciate them.

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