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Life’s pure intricacies hold astounding natural beauty, however, this beauty is often fleeting.  In his poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” Robert Frost explores the quizzical idea of life and death in the natural world by examining the simple subject of a leaf.  Frost uses the literary devices of imagery, analogy, and allusion as well as structural, sound, and syntactical devices to portray that all life is transitory.

 

Frost establishes the inherent value of life through the use of literary and sound devices.  He initially remarks that “Nature’s first green is gold” (Frost 1).  By coupling alliteration with metaphor, Frost draws a clear connection between the words “green” and “gold”, thereby relaying the intrinsic beauty of new life in spring.  By likening the vibrant “green” of new life to “gold”, he brings the reader to consider and cherish the treasure-like qualities of nature, thereby bestowing a sense of great value upon something so seemingly simplistic.  He further emphasizes the beauty of nature by using the image of an “early…flower” (3).  Through this use of natural imagery, Frost compels the reader to acknowledge the splendor and magnificence of fresh life while alluding to its characteristic frailty.  Furthermore, Frost develops the significance of natural beauty in order to impress that death does not discriminate in selecting its victims. 

 

Frost remarks on the temporary nature of life and the difficulty of preserving beauty by using literary and sound devices.  Frost personifies nature in divulging that the “green” of new life is “Her hardest hue to hold” (2).  In this line, Frost marries alliteration and personification to convey the simple manner by which life naturally ends.  By the alliteration of the “h” sound, Frost creates a flowing progression of life, thus suggesting the inevitable brevity of beauty.  In personifying nature as a meek female persona, Frost emphasizes the fragility and transience of pure nature.  Frost further expresses his view on the ephemeral essence of nature in the biblical allusion “So Eden sank to grief” (6).  This allusion to the perfect paradise of the Garden of Eden in the Bible reveals the melancholy that follows the death of natural beauty.  Just as sin brought an end to the short-lived sanctity of life in the Garden, so death overcomes the promise of new life.  Frost also incorporates the image of “dawn” going “down to day”, thus revealing the inexorable cyclical time that ends beauty (7).  Moreover, Frost utilizes imagery, analogy, and sound devices to convey the evanescent nature of life.

 

Frost solidifies a sense of harmony in the progression of life and death in nature through structural, syntactical, and sound devices.   The poem is only eight lines, and this short structure mirrors the brevity of life Frost intends to express.  He uses an iambic trimeter with three stressed syllables to each line (1-8).  Frost does this to establish a rhythm that the reader can easily follow, thereby subtly implying the simplicity of the subject of natural beauty.  However, he changes the meter in the last line from six total syllables to only five in the line “Nothing gold can stay”, indicating a sudden end to a brief poem just as death brings a sudden end to a brief life (8).  He further brings ease to the flow of the poem by using end rhyme between each of the couplets: “gold” and “hold”,  “flower” and “hour”, “leaf” and “grief”, and “day” and “stay” (1-8).  This natural flow from line to line brings a cyclical order to the poem, inferring the certainty of death.  Frost uses caesura at the end of each line to bring the reader to pause and consider the concise line’s meaning (1-8).  In doing so, he dually strengthens the message of his poem by integrating end stops to show the finality of death brought by the passing of time.

 

            Furthermore, in his poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, Robert Frost uses literary, sound, syntactical, and structural devices in order to expose the unavoidable transience of natural beauty and the ultimate finality of death.