Nothing Gold Can Stay
By Robert Frost
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
by Robert Frost
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.
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
• What do you think Robert Frost is
trying to say?
• Is this supposed to be a sad poem?
What makes you think so or think
not?
• When you hear the poem read
aloud, what images come to your
mind?
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
• Robert Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can
Stay,” helps Ponyboy and Johnny
understand that growing up and facing
reality is a necessary part of life.
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
• “Nothing gold can stay,” means that all good
things must come to an end.
• Sunrises transform the night into day, and
flowers wilt.
• In life, everything loses its youth and innocence.
• This loss does not have to be devastating,
however.
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
• The poem uses a metaphor from nature.
• The loss of innocence is as natural as the death of
a flower.
• Both losses must be accepted as an inevitable
part of life.
• The Greasers will inevitably suffer losses and
sacrifices.
• However, this does not mean that the loss of
being good is inevitable for Johnny and Ponyboy.
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”
• Before he dies, Johnny urges Ponyboy to “stay
gold,” to hold onto being good which will
outlast his loss of youth and innocence.