What does "Nothing Gold Can Stay" mean in the context of The Outsiders?

The poem’s meaning in the story refers to the fact that no one can stay young and innocent for long. 

When Johnny and Pony are on the run, hanging out, Johnny comments about the beauty of the sunrise.  This reminds Pony of a Robert Frost poem.  He connects the poem to the moment because the poem is about how nothing stays young. 

"The mist was what was pretty," Johnny said. "All gold and silver."

"Uhmmmm," I said, trying to blow a smoke ring.

"Too bad it couldn't stay like that all the time."

"Nothing gold can stay." I was remembering a poem I'd read once. (Ch. 5) 

This poem becomes very significant to Johnny.  When he is dying, he asks to speak to Pony.  He quotes the poem to him, which demonstrates how affected he was by it.  To Johnny, the poem has come to symbolize the innocence of youth. 

I barely heard him. I came closer and leaned over to hear what he was going to "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold..." The pillow seemed to sink a little, and Johnny died. (Ch. 9) 

Pony is deeply affected by Johnny’s death, of course. He understands what Johnny is telling him.  Even though he is a greaser, and all of his brothers are greasers, this does not mean that he has to follow this lifestyle.  He has a chance to be something else. 

Pony has always been the deep one.  He is good at school and likes to watch movies.  Yet, through spending time with Johnny, Pony learns that his friend has depths he hadn’t realized.  Johnny may not be good at school, but he does care and he is a good thinker.  Johnny was very taken by Gone with the Wind, for example.  Pony has a chance to "stay gold," meaning that he can rely on his education and his intelligence to make something of himself in the world.  

What does "Nothing Gold Can Stay" mean in the context of The Outsiders?

The line "Nothing gold can stay" is from Robert Frost’s poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay," which is all about how nothing lasts forever—in particular, the good things in life. Frost uses the word gold to stand for all good, pure things. Just like the substance gold is heralded as a treasure, things that are called gold are assumed to be good, beautiful things. In saying that “nothing gold can stay," the speaker is saying that these beautiful things are temporary.

Frost also references the Garden of Eden in the poem. According to the Bible, this garden was the paradise where the first human beings lived until they sinned and were banished. Through this reference, Frost applies the concept of good things being temporary to innocence and purity.

The line "nothing gold can say" is thus also reminiscent of how the innocence of childhood cannot last forever. This is relevant to The Outsiders because the boys are at an age where childhood innocence is lost and people become consumed with the harsh realities of adulthood. In encouraging Ponyboy to "stay gold," Johnny is telling him to try and keep his innate innocence and goodness alive. This, of course, is easier said than done.

What value does Ponyboy find in The poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost?

     "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is a poem by Robert Frost.  Ponyboy learned this poem in English class.  He remembers it when he is watching the sunrise with Johnny, while they are hiding out in the church in Windrixville.  He recites the poem, but feels as though he is missing the meaning.

     Later on, after Johnny tells Ponyboy to "stay gold", Ponyboy finds the meaning in the poem.  The poem reflects the boys' loss of innocence in their harrowing experiences as Greasers.  After the murder, the boys are irrevocably changed.  Ponyboy realizes that Johnny wants Ponyboy to continue to see the good in the world.  In Johnny's letter to Pony, he expresses that he believes that though he knows he will die from his injuries, it was worth it to save the innocent children.  He is seeing the good. 

     In "Nothing Gold Can Stay", the speaker refers to Eden, or the biblical loss of innocence.  When Pony grasps this meaning, he decides to write his theme for English class, which is the story told in the novel. Pony is thinking of all the young men he knows who have suffered and have been deprived of seeing the good, the innocence, or the "gold" in the world.  Through his writing, he hopes to change that.

How does "Nothing Gold Can Stay" relate to The Outsiders?

This poem that Ponyboy remembers whilst he and Johnny are hiding away in the church is explicitly related to the themes of the novel through its reference to the inevitable changes in nature that correspond to the growth and the loss of innocence of the central characters. This is something that Johnny, in his final letter to Ponyboy, directly comments upon:

I've been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy who wrote it, he meant you're gold when you're a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn... Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep it that way.

The poem thus is an allegory, as viewed by Ponyboy, about growing up and the loss of innocence. Johnny recognises that the gold in the poem relates to a period of relative innocence and of joy in the world that is all to easily lost, as is displayed in the novel in the form of other characters such as Ponyboy's elder brothers and Dally, who have lost the ability to appreciate sunsets because of the harsh nature of their lives. "Nothing Gold Can Stay" is therefore all about the inevitability of growing up and losing that childlike appreciation of the beauty of the world, and this is related to the novel through Ponyboy's struggles not to lose that innocence and not to become cynical and embittered because of the hardships he faces like those around him.

What is the central idea of "Nothing Gold Can Stay" in The Outsiders?

"Nothing Gold Can Stay" was written by Robert Frost. The text is as follows:

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.

I've been thinking about it, and that poem, that guy that wrote it, he meant you’re gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you're a kid everything's new, dawn. It's just when you get used to everything that it's day. Like the way you dig sunsets, Pony. That's gold. Keep that way, it’s a good way to be.