Nothing Gold Can Stay Flashcards
by Robert Frost — tap or click to flip
Flashcard Review
Flashcards: Nothing Gold Can Stay
How many lines does 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' contain?
Eight lines, making it one of Frost's most compact and tightly constructed poems.
What is the rhyme scheme of 'Nothing Gold Can Stay'?
AABBCCDD -- four consecutive rhyming couplets (gold/hold, flower/hour, leaf/grief, day/stay).
What is the opening line of the poem?
'Nature's first green is gold' -- a paradox that equates the earliest spring growth with something precious.
Why does Frost call nature's first green 'gold'?
The first buds of spring have a golden-green hue, and gold also symbolizes preciousness and rarity.
What does 'Her hardest hue to hold' mean?
Nature cannot maintain the golden color of early spring; it is the most fleeting stage of growth.
Who or what does 'Her' refer to throughout the poem?
Nature, personified as a female figure -- a common literary convention.
What literary device is used in 'Nature's first green is gold'?
Paradox -- green and gold are different colors, yet Frost equates them to suggest early buds appear golden.
What does 'Her early leaf's a flower' describe?
The first leaf buds of spring resemble flowers in their delicacy and beauty before they fully unfurl into ordinary leaves.
What does 'But only so an hour' convey?
The flower-like beauty of early leaves lasts only a brief time -- 'an hour' is hyperbole emphasizing how quickly it fades.
What happens in the line 'Then leaf subsides to leaf'?
The special first leaves mature into ordinary foliage, marking the loss of their initial golden beauty.
What does the word 'subsides' suggest about the change from bud to leaf?
It implies a sinking or diminishing -- the transformation is a decline rather than growth.
What Biblical event does 'So Eden sank to grief' allude to?
The Fall of Man -- when Adam and Eve lost paradise by eating the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden.
How does the Eden allusion expand the poem's scope?
It elevates the poem from a nature observation to a universal statement about the loss of innocence throughout human history.
What parallel does Frost draw between nature's cycle and the Eden story?
Just as spring's golden beauty fades to ordinary green, Eden's perfection gave way to human suffering -- both are inevitable losses.
What does 'So dawn goes down to day' mean?
The vivid colors of sunrise fade into the plain light of day, another example of early beauty yielding to the ordinary.
How many natural examples of impermanence does the poem provide?
Three: spring's golden buds fading to leaves, dawn fading to daylight, and Eden's paradise giving way to grief.
What is the progression of imagery from the first line to the last?
It moves from a specific nature observation (spring buds) to human history (Eden) to a universal truth (nothing gold can stay).
What type of figurative language is 'dawn goes down to day'?
Alliteration (the repeated 'd' sound) and metaphor -- dawn's beauty 'going down' mirrors the subsiding of gold to green.
What is the central message of the final line, 'Nothing gold can stay'?
All things that are beautiful, pure, or precious are inherently temporary and cannot last.
In what year was 'Nothing Gold Can Stay' first published?
1923, in the collection 'New Hampshire,' which won Frost the first of his four Pulitzer Prizes.
What does 'gold' represent beyond its literal color?
Youth, innocence, beauty, and anything precious -- all the things that are most valued yet most fleeting.
How does the poem's brevity reinforce its theme?
The poem itself is brief and quickly over, mirroring the fleeting golden moments it describes.
In S.E. Hinton's 'The Outsiders,' why does Johnny tell Ponyboy to 'Stay gold'?
He urges Ponyboy to preserve his youthful innocence and sensitivity despite the violence and hardship around them.
What is the poem's dominant tone?
Elegiac and wistful -- it mourns the inevitable passing of beauty without bitterness or anger.
What does 'hue' mean in context of 'Her hardest hue to hold'?
Color or shade -- referring to the golden-green tint of early spring growth that quickly changes.
How does each couplet relate to the one before it?
Each one broadens the scope: spring buds to seasonal change, then to human history (Eden), then to a universal law.
What role does the word 'so' play in lines 6 and 7?
It creates parallel structure linking nature's fading to Eden's fall and dawn's passing, showing all follow the same pattern.