Poetry Blog 11

I think I had read "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost before, and I really like it. Frost interprets "gold" as not only the actual color, but also as happiness and goodness. Frost's poem is literally about nature, and how no beauty--or "gold" can ever last: spring turns into summer, flowering trees bloom for a short time but eventually only have leaves, and dawn, the only literal gold in the poem, becomes day. However, Frost also drops subtle hints that this concept can be applied to anything in life. the phrase, "all good things must come to an end" comes to mind for me here. The lines "Then leaf subsides to leaf/ so Eden sank to grief" really stuck out to me, not only because I think the rhyme sounds really cool, but also because the biblical allusion to Eden makes the reader realize that Frost describes the ever temporary beauty of nature, but that it is also characteristic of many other things, such as the destruction of the Garden of Eden. But Frost has the poetic talent to convey this message in only five words, which makes it sound elegant and profound. Everyone can think of a time in the past which they are nostalgic for; a time or place more "golden" than the present. This is Frost's underlying message with "Nothing Gold Can Stay." It uses metaphor and allusion to call the audience to savor the present as it happens. Frost cautions against taking anything for granted, because everything good and "golden" is temporary.