The Outsiders Group

Question:

asilly
asilly
Student

Theme: The poem, "Nothing Gold Can Stay", expresses an important idea in the story. Review the poem and be able to explain its meaning.

what does the poem's meaning

How it applies to ponyboy

How it applies to Johnny

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Posted by asilly on Sunday June 7, 2009 at 5:44 PM and tagged with reference, theme.

Answers:


  1. epollock Teacher
    High School - 12th Grade

    eNotes Editor

    asilly,

    Robert Frost's famous poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay:"

    Nature's first green is gold

    Her hardest hue to hold

     

    Her early leaf's a flower;

    But only so an hour.

     

    Then leaf subsides to leaf.

    So Eden sank to grief,

     

    So dawn goes down to day.

    Nothing gold can stay.

    explores the idea that happiness, perfection, bliss (all symbolized by gold) cannot and will not endure. The apparent paradox of line 1 is based on the fact that when buds appear in the spring, their first color is gold rather than green. 

    The speaker also looks at the falling away from gold in nature, human history, and time. The leaf, humanity, and the day all begin in gold (bud, Eden, dawn) and decay quickly; perfection in any form lasts only an hour.

    You can see in many characters the decay of their personal qualities or the fact that whatever qualities they do have will not last and will come to an end.

    Sources:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nothing_Gold_Can_Stay_(poem)
    http://www.enotes.com/contemporary-literary-criticism/fro...

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    Posted by epollock on Sunday June 7, 2009 at 6:01 PM