Nothing Gold Can Stay.
Collection – New Hampshire. 1923
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.
In Frost’s own words: ‘I am not a Nature poet.’ Most of
his poems begin with an observation of Nature. He uses Nature as a metaphor
to write about human concerns, thoughts and feelings.
In ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay’, he talks of the ephemeral
nature of things that makes them precious. The desire of human beings to
hold on to things that are momentary or short lived - a vibrant rainbow,
a pink sunset, or the pale green (almost yellow) of the fresh leaves –
is central to the understanding of this poem.
Symbolism
The very first leaves in Spring are almost gold in color –
but do not stay that way for long. Then the leaf turns into a flower that
too does not last. The plant perishes. The joys of Eden did not last for
the dwellers. Every new day comes to a close. Only change and end is inevitable.
This is also a symbol for life. ‘Nature’s first green’
or gold (the purest) is symbolic of childhood which we cannot hold on to
and it quickly vanishes. ‘Early leaf’s flower’ tells us
that soon childhood flowers into youth. But youth too does not last. Eden,
symbolic of adulthood, leads to old age and the sunset stands for death.
Theme
Precious things and precious moments are short-lived. They are
precious because they are short lived. Nothing that is precious can stay
on forever. So while we must appreciate things and times while they last
and we must also understand that they must end. We must learn to let go.
Elsewhere, in Reluctance, he has depicted this struggle of man:
Ah, when to the heart of man
Was it ever less than a treason
To go with the drift of things,
To yield with a grace to reason,
And bow and accept the end
Of a love or a season?
To me, this also has an association with Maya in Hinduism. Maya means illusion
- something that cannot be possessed, the Hindu term for this material world.
Maya represents the human dilemma of being caught up in the illusion of
the material world, and failing to recognize the actual unity of atman (the
individual) with Brahman (the universal ‘All’). Maya is the
illusion in which our everyday consciousness becomes entangled and we must
be see through it in order to achieve moksha (liberation of the soul from
the cycle of death and rebirth).
Color connotation
Gold across cultures is a symbol of purity (hence the saying -
'heart of gold'). So the association with ‘first green’, ‘early
leaf’, ‘Eden’ and ‘dawn’.
Click on the poems to read their analysis.
Birches
Mowing
Into my Own
Putting in the Seed
Going for Water
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Fragmentary Blue
Reluctance