"Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour.

Then lead subsides to leaf.

So Eden sank to grief,

So dawn goes down to day.

Nothing gold can stay.

           I chose “Nothing Gold to Stay” by Robert Frost because I feel it is both cynical and true at the same time, causing some inner conflict.  The poem starts with a positive tone, speaking of the time when flowers begin to blossom and leaves begin to turn color, but quickly changes to a time when the leaves and flowers have fallen and the days are dark.  It then ends with the line “nothing gold can stay” (gold in this case representing things that are good because gold is usually paired with things of a positive nature).  The point Frost is trying to hint at is that like the seasons, all things come to an end or change.  I do agree that all things come to an end eventually, but I think his poem seems cynical because it points out something we as a generally optimistic people do not like to think about…good things coming to an end and death.  Frost alludes to the bible when he mentions the Garden of Eden and uses this as an example.  I think he chose this allusion because even the Garden, which is seen as beautiful and perfect in the beginning of Adam and Eve’s life together, is quickly shamed and filled with sin.  Thus, like all good things, as Frost believes, it comes to an end.  Referring back to a point I made earlier about humans being inherently optimistic, take my parents’ marriage for example.  It has had a great run for a little over twenty-five years and has not come to an end…yet.  When I say “yet,” I do not mean I expect them to get a divorce, but like all living things, they will both eventually die, thus resulting in the end of a great marriage (and two great lives).  If we think of it in this context, yes, all things do come to an end because all living things must die.  However, by leading us to the frame of mind in which we must think in order to see everything come to an end, this poem becomes very cynical because it leads most, if not all thoughts down the dark path of death.