Nothing Gold Can Stay
By Robert Frost
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.
-Robert Frost
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”…

was written by Robert Frost.

was originally published in Frost’s
1923 Volume, New Hampshire.

is one of Frost’s many famous poems
alongside “Fire and Ice” and “The
Road Not Taken.”
Nature's first green is gold.
a) What is "nature's first green"?
b) Why is it "gold"? Do you think
Frost means the color gold?
Her hardest hue to hold.
a) What is a "hue"?
b) Does nature have a hard time
"holding" on to green? ( just think…
don’t answer, yet…)
Her early leaf's a flower;
But only so an hour.
a) What would an "early leaf" be?
b) Why is it only that way for an hour? Is
an hour…what is Frost saying here?
Then leaf subsides to leaf.
a) What does the word "subsides" mean?
b) Knowing that a leaf bud may look like
a flower at first, but actually turns into a leaf
(as we know one to look like), where could Frost
be going with this poem?
So Eden sank to grief.
a) What is "Eden"?
b) What is meant by the reference to "grief"?
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.
a) What do the words in red indicate to you?
b) Why do you think Frost chose them?
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.
a) We don't typically think of dawn, or a
sunrise, as "going down", as we would
with dusk. Why do you think Frost
worded it like this?
b)What is meant by "nothing gold can
stay"?
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.
-Robert Frost
Final Question: Now that you have a better understanding of
the poem, how could the messages apply to more than nature?
What does it say about people and life in general?
Rhythm

the rhythm of this poem is mostly iambic
trimeter.
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Rhyme Scheme

the rhyme scheme in this poem is
AABBCCDD; its lines form four pairs
of couplets.
Nature’s first green is gold, A
Her hardest hue to hold. A
Her early leaf’s a flower; B
But only so and hour. B
Sound Device: Alliteration

Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;

So dawn goes down to day.
In lines two, three and seven the
author utilizes alliteration.
Sound Device: Assonance

Then leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
In lines five and six, Frost employs
assonance in the form of the long “e”
sound.
Figurative Language: Allusion

So Eden sank to grief,
In the sixth line, Frost is alluding to
The Garden of Eden, a setting of a
biblical story.
Figurative Language: Personification
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.

In these lines of the poem, nature, a
non-human thing, is said to be
holding the color gold.
Figurative Language: Metaphor

An example of a metaphor in this
poem is:
Her early leaf’s a flower;

Here, Frost is comparing two alike
things: the leaf and the flower.
Poetic Device: Imagery

So dawn goes down to day.

Nature’s first green is gold,
Frost is appealing to the reader’s
sense of sight.
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”…

would be a perfect
poem for this
textbook because
of its consistent
rhythm and rhyme,
ideal length, and
numerous
examples of poetic
devices such as:
Alliteration
 Assonance
 Allusion
 Personification
 Metaphor
 Imagery
