16 pages • 32 minutes read
Robert FrostNothing Gold Can Stay
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1923A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Eden
“Eden” (Line 6) alludes to the idea of Paradise, and equates “[n]ature” (Line 1) to the famous biblical Garden of Eden prior to the Fall of Man. In the Christian creation story, Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden after they eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. God enacts this punishment to stop them from eating from the tree of life and thus gaining immorality. Frost calls on the mythic to highlight the idea that perfection is not lasting. With this reference, he emphasizes the lack of paradise’s permanence and the mortality of mankind—a transient state causing grief and sorrow. The overall tone of the poem is melancholy but the use of Eden as a symbol takes the loss from personal to epic, expanding beyond Frost’s personal emoting to connect to a broad audience of readers who all have their own tragedies.
Gold
The use of the word “gold” to describe “nature’s first green” (Line 1) is deliberately symbolic. Gold obviously serves as a color, but Frost could have used yellow instead. By using the word “gold” (Line 1), Frost implies not only the color but the value associated with the element. Gold is a rare metal and the reference here is to something beautiful, rare, and superior in quality. By noting “[n]othing gold can stay” (Line 8), Frost indicates that the value, due to its rarity, is impermanent and may slip away from its user.
Leaf
Within the poem’s 40 words, the word “leaf” is used three times—the most of any noun. “Leaf” is initially used to describe nature’s transition from “bud” to a “leaf” that is “a flower” (Line 3), meaning unfolded or unfurled. Leaf also alludes to gold leaf—a very thin layer of gold used to embellish items. Thus, Nature’s “early leaf” (Line 3) harkens back to the first gold-hued “green” (Line 1).
Leaf is also used to in the third line symbolize a stage in mankind’s process of life; in this case, it signifies the early part of adulthood. In the fifth line, Frost’s definition of leaf also works in rich symbolic ways. “Leaf subsides to leaf” (Line 5) equates to both the way the leaves of a plant flourish and die, as well as to successive stages of life, translating as “age subsides to age” (Line 5). Further, Frost also creates the idea of “leaf” being a “page” of the book of life. “Leaf subsides to leaf” (Line 5) then suggests the turning of pages in a book, as in reading a story. This figurative reading adds to the reference in the next line about Eden, which is the story of man’s creation and fall from grace.
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