Nothing Gold Can Stay
Robert Frost
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.
1. Explain whether the title of the poem helped you predict its
message.
2. Identify four specific things that the poem says cannot, or did not, “stay.”
3. Think what the first buds of leaves look like in spring, and explain what
line 1 means.
4. Explain the natural process described in line 5.
5. What Biblical event is alluded to in line 6? What state of mind or situation
might “Eden” symbolize here?
6. What different ideas might “gold” symbolize in the poem? Why can’t gold
stay—or do you disagree?
7. Show how rhyme and rhythm contribute to this poem’s compactness
and completeness. How do alliteration, slant rhyme, and echoing
sound effects contribute to the poem’s tightly woven unity?