Talk:Nothing Gold Can Stay (poem)

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Fair use?[edit]

Personally, I think it's one of the best poems ever written. It's so true to life. I can relate to it.

I agree, it's a great poem. But is the inclusion fair use?--Grand Slam 7 | Talk 00:03, 16 January 2007 (UTC)[reply]
Wikisource seems to have no trouble with it. 68.39.174.238 18:40, 17 February 2007 (UTC)[reply]
It has passed out of copyright and is in the public domain, so there is no issues surrounding it's use here.
Actually, it seems that any works of Robert Frost produced 1923 or later are still under copyright under the Copyright Term Extension Act of 1998 -- Wikisource has pulled this poem off its pages, since the copyright on Frost's post-1923 works were all renewed. Shouldn't Wikipedia do the same? 75.84.87.203 (talk) 08:00, 14 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]
Over a year later I removed the text of the poem, citing Stanford University's copyright database as the ref for the renewal date. 72.244.201.52 (talk) 03:44, 17 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Reference in popular culture[edit]

I don't know what the format/style should be for this, or if it should be added at all, so I'll just mention it in the talk page.

The last three lines of this poem appear in an episode of the Simpsons, spoken by Sea Captain, while Bart gives a Viking Funeral for his toys (and thus his childhood).

I think the name of the episode is "Fat Man And Little Boy."

24.216.230.138 04:16, 1 April 2007 (UTC)Benjermin.[reply]

It also is a plot point and forms one of the main themes (and the most famous line - "Stay gold.") from the great American novel "The Outsiders."

The Outsiders should definitely be mentioned, but let's not turn this into another Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening, please. —Preceding unsigned comment added by JDCAce (talk • contribs) 18:03, 28 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I think something should be mentioned about The Outsiders as the phrase "Stay gold, Ponyboy. Stay gold." which is said in the book is very important toward the theme and the story. So, maybe it should be mentioned a little and give a link toward the Outsider's, otherwise there is no point in a wikipedia article for a poem. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 62.57.155.97 (talk) 13:49, 28 February 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Missing[edit]

The article is missing the poem's publication date and also the name of the collection in which it was published. --GentlemanGhost 23:02, 17 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

The article states that it was written in the 1850s, which is quite impossible due to Robert Frost's birth occurring in the 1870s. It was published in its present form (8 lines) in 1923, but was written in various forms prior to that, but certainly not in the 1850s for an obvious reason. GoPokes1968 (talk) 15:18, 20 May 2009 (UTC)[reply]

General meaning section[edit]

and should be re-organized (possibly with external links to noted interpretations) or removed completely. I will do the latter in three days.Gary Joseph 03:37, 6 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Line by line interpretation[edit]

I recently wrote a line-by-line interpretation of it. I passed it by my professor, who is published author and professor of English at CSUN, and he said it hit the nail on the head, as in it is the "chief, classic interpretation" of Frost's poem.

  1. "Nature's first green is gold" — Gold means valuable, and I think "nature's first green" is refering to youth. All plants and fruits when they are first rising into being are green. Somebody that is "green" is said to be new. Here's gold's proper semantic express is "value". "Nature's first green" refers to youth. All incipient plants and fruits are green.
  2. "Her hardest hue to hold" — Youth is the hardest quality for things born of nature to hold on to.
  3. "Her early leaf's a flower" — The early leafs, being youngness. A flower, being something beautiful. That is to say, beauty is spent on the young.
  4. "But only so an hour" — "Only" implies that an hour is a short amount of time. Youth and beauty can be held for but a small length of time.
  5. "Then leaf subsides to leaf" —
  6. "So Eden sank to grief" — Eden is the place where beauty and youth were to reign everlasting, yet, even Eden was robbed of this quality. This example brings forth the ultimate extreme, and shows the message to be true in any circumstance.
  7. "So dawn goes down to day" — When the sun goes from dawn to day, it goes upwards. Frost means to call attention to the word down, so that "dawn" and "day" may be more thoroughly inspected. Indeed, "dawn" and "day" carry figurative meaning. In Greek Mythology, when Oedipus was confronted by the Riddle of the Sphinx, "dawn" was compared to youth, while "day" was compared to middle-age. In that, Frost means to convey that youth will fade just as the sun goes from dawn to day.
  8. "Nothing gold can stay" — Nothing can stay young and beautiful forever. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Sytar (talk • contribs) 01:24, 1 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Symbolic words[edit]

(I took this out of the main article --- it has no references, and is all opinion. Unless references can be cited for interpretations, they shouldn't be used 138.38.217.149 (talk) 10:01, 29 May 2008 (UTC))[reply]

  • Like many of Frost's poems, or most poems in general, there are possibly hidden meanings tucked carefully behind words or phrases within it. Here is a list of words that have been analyzed and interpreted, although there exists the possibility they have some other symbolism:

Gold- Stands for what Frost believes to be perfect.
Nature- Translates to Garden of Eden. Clarified by Frost on line six.
Leaf- The beginning of humanity, or humankind.
Hue- The current state of humanity. No relevance to an actual shade of color.
Flower- Naturally, we think of beauty; however, Frost dictates on line six that the loss of the flower creates a grief of ‘biblical’ proportions. Knowing that a loss of mere beauty would not have felled something as epic as the Garden of Eden, we conclude that the flower also represents purity.
Hour- The flower lasts only an hour. If proportionally compared to a person, Frost is saying people may achieve longevity but can only remain pure and beautiful for a very short time. This can also be compared with the biblical reference in Genesis, Garden of Eden. Nothing gold can ever stay gold forever.

In The Outsiders (novel) by S.E. Hinton Johnny writes in a letter to Ponyboy that Frost meant that gold was like childhood. This is why his dying word to Pony are "Stay gold". Johnny means that he should keep the joy of childhood inside him and never let it go.

The poem is simply based on nature. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.37.13.149 (talk) 20:26, 4 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Analysis section[edit]

This section seems to consist entirely of original research. If it cannot be sourced, it should be removed. --Katerenka (talk) 03:34, 26 September 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Meter[edit]

Charles Berger writes in his book on Robert Frost that the meter in this poem is trochaic (p. 75). Any thoughts? SoyseñorsnibblesDígame 01:08, 30 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Wiki Education assignment: Honors English 250H VL1[edit]

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 10 January 2023 and 4 May 2023. Further details are available on the course page. Peer reviewers: Mgferris13.

— Assignment last updated by Englishbulldog2023 (talk) 01:45, 15 April 2023 (UTC)[reply]

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