Nothing Gold Can Stay Analysis

We don't know about you, but the first thing Shmoop noticed about "Nothing Gold Can Stay" were those rhyming couplets. They practically leap off the page. We hear "hold" and "gold," then "flower" a...

The speaker of this poem is elusive. He (we say "he" only because Frost is male and that makes things a whole lot simpler) speaks without using the first person and keeps the topic pretty impersona...

The poem places us right in the gold glow of a spring sunrise while reminding us that such beauty is only temporary. The poem mentions the Garden of Eden, and you can totally imagine yourself in a...

Frost doesn't just rely on boring old meter and rhymes to make music in this one. He's got alliteration, assonance, consonance, and slant rhymes up the wazoo to add some flavor to the mix. We'll wa...

As you read, it seems like every line is saying "Nothing Gold Can Stay"—just in a different way each time. And that notion is pretty drastic. The title doesn't just say that most gold things don'...

Frost has a way of saying exactly the right thing in exactly the right amount of space—which, in the case of this poem, is very little. These tiny eight lines make us think about a lot, from spri...

While there are some tricky turns of phrase that could throw you off your path, this poem is more of a lovely stroll than a grueling climb. You can even wear flip-flops.

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" was published in New Hampshire, Frost's first book of four—that's right, four—to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize. (Source.)"Nothing Gold Can Stay" may have inspired the ti...

Though springtime, the Garden of Eden, and sunrise make this poem romantic, there's not much sex to speak of here. You can read this aloud to a child of any age.

The Garden of Eden (6)