Nature VS Philosophy
Robert Frost is one of the most famous and beloved poets of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Nature is the subject of many of his poems. Although he is well educated in botany and biology and his content is factual, there is always a connection between nature and a human situation or a feeling. One of his famous quotes is “I am not a nature poet. There is almost always a person in my poems”. His poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is a good example of his skilled way of using nature as a symbol of something more complex in the human psyche.
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.
The very first line “Nature’s first green is gold” uses the colors of nature as symbols. Green could mean youth, freshness or springtime. It could also refer to innocence or inexperience. For some it may symbolize money. Gold could also refer to money or something valuable. It may also indicate beauty or radiance. In contrast to the green of youth, gold may signify age. There are certainly many possibilities. The way we choose to interpret this first line will determine what the rest of the poem means to us.
Another reference to nature is the word leaf. It echoes several times indicating multiple meanings. Is the poem referring to a tree’s first buds changing into full leaves? Another thought might be that it means leaves of paper, as the pages of a book or a calendar. This idea would correspond with the passing of time.
The reference to Eden seems more biblical than about nature. It will cause some of us to think of the story of Adam and Eve and relate it to innocence and purity. Others may consider a beautiful garden growing lush with lots of flowers and fruit. The fact that Eden sank in the poem brings to mind the season changing...