Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost Poem Analysis (Essay Sample)

In Robert Frost’s poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay, he describes nature as being gold. The nature he is writing about represents humanity and the world. Frost says gold is the hardest hue to hold; “Nature’s first green is gold, Her hardest hue to hold” (Frost). This is because of what gold represents, and how the world and people in it are always changing specifically after the fall.  

Gold represents something innocent, valuable, young, pure, and beautiful. The first line in the poem is that the first green is gold, which means something such as the new buds of a tree. This newness does not last for long, which is why it is a hard hue for nature to hold. When equating this to human life, nature's first green can be seen as a child who is innocent and pure. Children do not stay children forever, they eventually grow up, which explains how it is the “hardest hue to hold” (Frost). In the next line, Frost writes “Her early leaf’s a flower, But only so an hour. Then leaf subsides to leaf” (Frost). This represents something that was once beautiful such as a flower, fading into something ordinary such as a leaf. Beauty is fleeting. From this first part of the poem, it is evident that gold represents all these things. 

The second part of the poem is where Frost talks about the fall and helps readers understand how this concept applies to them. He writes “So Eden sank to grief” (Frost). In this context, it is evident that he is talking about the garden of Eden and Adam and Eve. God’s creation was originally “gold” because it was flawless and without sin. When Adam and Eve sinned, they ruined the purity and innocence of the earth, in other words, they did not “stay gold” which caused the garden to not be perfect anymore. In this line, it is clear how Frost talks about real nature in the garden but it is also clear how human nature is flawed, which causes the garden to “sink to grief” as seen in Eden. As a consequence of this, man is no longer the perfect gold that God intended. 

Like Adam and Eve, no one in today's world can stay pure and innocent forever. The final lines of Nothing Gold Can Stay says “So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay” (Frost). Dawn is the first part of the morning when the sun rises, and everything is beautiful and fresh. Dawn going down to day means that the beauty of the morning does not last forever, the day will go on, and plans will go wrong. If the simplicity of the morning cannot even last forever, then nothing else can either. Nothing gold can stay in a broken world. 

Overall, the theme of Nothing Gold Can Stay is how short-lived innocence and purity are. If something is gold, it is perfect, and perfection is not a reality since the fall. No one can go through all of life staying innocent and sin-free, everyone grows up eventually. Because the world is broken, nothing gold can stay.