Robert Frost’s imaginative and epic poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” utilizes nature to symbolize the concept that beautiful and good things in life will eventually fade away. The speaker and nature in the poem communicate through the rapidly changing times. From a distance, the speaker observes how quickly time passes, bringing forth notable changes. Evidence of lessons about life is conveyed in the poem by non-human nature. For instance, the poem explains the flourishing leaves as gold during the spring season. The same leaves gradually fade as the season’s change, but before the shoot wilts, it bears flowers that are beautiful and short-lived. Here, the seasons parallel the short human life that if one fails to utilize appropriately, elapses, leaving one with grief. Notably, the persona feels remorseful about the quick successions of events leading to the demise of the once blossoming shoot. Inline seven, the speaker sorrowfully says, “So Eden sank to grief” while registering his displeasure with short human life.
Admittedly, the poem’s structure plays a central role in depicting the emotional aspect of the theme. First, the poem is relatively short, which parallels the main idea of portraying brief human life. The poem is only eight lines full of literary devices complementing the theme. The shortness of the poem evokes remorseful, melancholic, and resentful emotions. Seemingly, the persona is dissatisfied that life ends quickly when it should have lasted a little longer. For example, in lines four and five, “the early leaf’s a flower but only so an hour,” meaning the flower blossoms for only an hour before it wilts and dies. That symbolizes youthful human life full of energy, vigor, and ambitions but quickly fades away, leaving people with grief. Further remorseful emotions are depicted by the repetition of the title as the last line of the poem indicates the persona’s firm belief in the sad fate of human life.
Essentially, the most critical message to deduce from the poem is always to appreciate all the precious moments because they hardly last long. I connect with the poem at a personal level as it speaks to my heart about the truth of my life. Human growth is rapid, and if one is not keen to enjoy the moments, precious time tends to pass without our notice. Children are born and quickly grow up to be young adults, adults, and senior adults, then face their ultimate death to complete the cycle leaving their offspring following the same route. Overall, the message of the poem is told poetically with the perfect utilization of imagery, metaphors, symbols, and sounds combined to bring forth the theme of parallelism between nature and human life.
Reference
Frost, R. (n.d.). “Neither out far nor in deep”The Literature Network.