Question

Activity

Read Robert Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” Then answer the questions that follow to analyze how the poem uses figurative language to convey a message.

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.

Part A
The first line of the poem contains the phrase “green is gold,” which has the structure of a metaphor. This metaphor links two different colors. What is the symbolic meaning of the colors green and gold? What does this metaphor say?

Answer 1

This is not actually about nature it’s meaning nothing good can stay. In the outsiders this poem is used. When Johnny dies he says stay gold to Ponyboy meaning stay good.