Eng composition

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” is a poem written in 1923 by Robert Frost. This poem touches on the fleeting passage of time. The changes of nature through the seasons of the year, the changes between morning, noon, and evening of the day, are all ways to mark the passage of time. Gold is easily bent and broken due to the extremely soft nature of the metal. The fair market value of gold also experiences rather wild fluctuations, so the value of it is as fleeting as the passage of time. The short length of the poem is another illustration of how quickly time passes since it does not take much time at all to read the poem in its entirety. The imagery used within the poem helps to clarify and relate to the theme of time passing.

“Nature’s first green is gold/ Her hardest hue to hold” (Frost, 1923, Lines 1-2), indicates the passage of time from fall, when the leaves are golden, red, and brown, to spring, when the leaves grow back fresh and green. The passage of seasons within a year are clearly marked by the changes in nature. The second line is a reference to how quickly nature turns brown and wilted when it is not properly cared for, or in cases of drought, or late freezes in nature.

“Her early leaf’s a flower;/ But only so an hour” (Frost, 1923, Lines 3-4), is another indicator of seasonal changes. The flowers pop up in the spring but often wilt in the summer if they do not receive enough water, or too much heat. While the flowers are beautiful when they first emerge from the ground, and begin to bloom, they are still quickly replaced with drooping, brittle, and brown stalks that have pale petals that crumble to dust at the slightest breeze. The usage of the time marker of an hour indicates that the flower does not last long before it goes away.

“Then leaf subsides to leaf./ So Eden sank to grief” (Frost, 1923, Lines 5-6), also references the passage of seasons by the turning of the leaves. The green leaves of spring subside to the browning leaves of fall. The Garden of Eden, while a wonderful paradise designed for humankind, has sunk to grief since Adam and Eve were cast out of the garden and there is no longer a caretaker for the gardens.

“So dawn goes down to day./ Nothing gold can stay.” (Frost, 1923, Lines 7-8), indicates changes in time during the day. The passage of time from early morning, into the full light of day, and eventually back to the black of night, is a time marker that everyone can relate to because it does not

change from location to location, or decade to decade. There are twenty- four hours in a day, and since each hour passes quickly, as referenced in lines 3 and 4, it would stand to reason that each day would pass quickly as well. Since each day passes quickly, then it would also make sense for the seasons to change and years to pass by much faster than we would like for them to.

The entirety of the poem offers several different indications of time passing. It touches on changes from one hour to the next, season to season, and year to year. The poem is short and does not take much time to read, which can be taken as another indication of how quickly time passes. This poem is one that will have relevance to everyone for centuries because the passage of time does not change from year to year, or decade to decade. While humankind has changed the way they track the passage of time, the concept of time passing has gone through very few changes over the millenia. Humankind started tracking time by hunting seasons and what animals were available for hunting. As humanity transitioned from hunters and gatherers to farmers, they then began to track time by planting and harvest seasons. Humanity no longer relies on planting and harvesting alone for survival, so timekeeping methods have changed once again, and the passage of time is now tracked in hours and minutes. Gold is an easily broken metal that is very soft and malleable, with an always changing fair market value that does not maintain consistency at any given time. Frost, R. (1923). Nothing gold can stay. In L.G. Kirszner & S.R. Mandell (Eds.), Compact Literature: Reading, Reacting, Writing [VitalSource digital version] (p. 749). Boston, MA: Cengage, Inc.