16 pages • 32 minutes read
Robert FrostNothing Gold Can Stay
Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1923A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Literary Devices
Form and Meter
“Nothing Gold Can Stay” is, sans the last line, written in iambic trimeter. Each line contains three iambs (an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable), creating six beats per line. In the New England dialect “flower” (Line 3) is pronounced as a single syllable, more like “flour” than “flow-er.” Thus, all the lines conform to the pattern except the last. The evenness of the meter creates part of the sense of sound, or tone, which Frost found essential to the success of his poetry. At first, the even rhythm is pleasing to the ear, which explains in part why the poem is easy to memorize. As the poem progresses, this evenness begins to create an underlying plodding tone much like a dirge—something sad and unstoppable. This is echoed in the imagery and enhanced by the last line which stops one syllable short of six, creating a cut off feeling that resounds the despair of the latter four lines. Changing the meter of the last line also shows that whatever progress has been made is truncated.
The rhyme scheme of “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is simple: aabbccdd. The end rhymes are exact: gold/hold (Lines 1-2), flower/hour (Lines 3-4), leaf/grief (Lines 5-6), and day/stay (Lines 7-8). The short lines of six beats combined with the simple, exact rhyme scheme lull the reader into the sense of hearing a nursery rhyme or light verse. This even, expected form comforts the reader but also serves to highlight the contrast of the darker subject matter in the poem’s second half. The very form of the poem sets up the innocence or newness of Lines 1-4 to be undercut with decay and despair in Lines 5-8.
Alliteration
Alliteration is a sound device in which the beginnings of nearby words have the same consonant sound. Poets use alliteration for several reasons: to please the ear, to create a certain rhythmic sound, or to emphasize certain words or phrases. Frost’s consistent use of alliteration aligns with his ideas that sound should help create tone. The alliteration in “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is commonly noted, particularly the “h” repetition of “hardest hue to hold” (Line 2)—and the “d” repetition of “dawn goes down to day” (Line 7). The poem is made up of only 40 words, so this type of repetition is hard to miss. However, Frost also uses “g” alliteration in “green is gold” (Line 1) and “l” in “leaf subsides to leaf” (Line 5). These uses of alliteration emphasize the physicality of the imagery: the gold and the green hues, and the passage of time. Further, there is an “s” alliteration that flows through Lines 5-7 that creates a sense of deflation: “Leaf subsides to leaf. /So Eden sank to grief, / So dawn […]” (Lines 5-7). This “s” almost hisses like a balloon’s air being released, with the repeated “so” (Lines 6-7) emphasizing inevitability, a major theme. It is worthwhile to note the echoing “gr” sound in “green” (Line 1) and “grief” (Line 6) which, although distanced in the poem, again enhance the idea that the new is connected to loss.
Kinetic Imagery
Frost adds to the sense of distress over the transitory nature of time in “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by using kinetic imagery, or the imagery of motion, focusing on images that suggest tangible action. The use of verbs suggesting descent increases as the poem progresses. In the first four lines, the imagery tends to concentrate on the visual aspects of blooming: the golden color of the “first green” (Line 1) and the flowering of the early leaf. The verb “is” suggests equation: “green is gold” (Line 1) and the “early leaf [is] a flower” (Line 3). Frost creates a sense of false surety with these two images.
However, even at the beginning he interweaves the suggestion that nature cannot “hold on” (Line 2) to such things for they last “only so an hour” (Line 4). Even among the beautiful visual imagery of the first section, Frost imbeds the idea that all quickly slips from reach. The subsequent verbs in "subsides” (Line 5), “sank” (Line 6), and “goes down” (Line 7) all suggest descent—a clear movement downward or away from. The leaf gives way to another, Eden gives way to life after the Fall, and dawn gives way to day. Even Frost’s verbs suggest the overall theme of his poem: Whatever glory humans are privileged enough to glimpse is fleeting.
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By Robert Frost
