Personification In Nothing Gold Can Stay

Words: 484
Pages: 2

In Robert Frost's “Nothing Gold can Stay”, the author uses several poetic devices to express how the beauty of nature eventually dies out, and at the end of the day, nothing is really special. Throughout the poem, Frost uses symbolism and metaphor to show how nothing can avoid decay.

The first 2 lines of stanza 1 are about the beauty of nature in early autumn, and use a lot of personification and metaphor. In line 1, Frost says, “Nature’s first green is gold”. He uses metaphor to compare the early colors of spring to the dull green in the rest of the year, and express the beautiful gold-brown mix of colors in the leaves. In line 2, Frost uses personification to describe how short that period of color in the year is: “Her hardest hue to hold”. Frost says “her” instead of “nature” to compare the short period of color in the year to
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In line 5, Frost says: “ Then leaf subsides to leaf”. He says this because all the colorful autumn leaves change to a dull green color and lose what makes them unique. Frost uses metaphor to compare early autumn leaves to ordinary green leaves in this line. In line 6, Frost says: “ So Eden sank to grief”. He says this to express how sad it is to watch beauty diminish to nothing at all. Also, Frost uses personification when he says “Eden”. Eden is a biblical character who represents nature, but nature isn’t a person.

In the last 2 lines, Frost sums up the poem: “So dawn goes down to day / Nothing gold can stay”. These last lines don’t really use poetic devices. Instead, they restate that “at the end of the day, nothing is really special” and how nothing can be preserved forever. Nothing Gold can Stay is a very meaningful poem that I enjoyed a lot. Frost did a good job of explaining how nature and beauty will always change over time. Also, the poem doesn’t only apply to nature - art and sculptures also lose their beauty over