1. “Nothing Gold Can Stay”
Robert Frost
“Nothing Gold Can Stay”

2. When does this poem come up?
Chapter 5 in The Outsiders
Chapter 9 in The Outsiders
Chapter 12 in The Outsiders

3. What is the meaning of the poem?
It describes the natural life cycle of the tree. How can you tell that this is true?
There are multiple meanings to Frost’s poems, what is the other meaning?
What is the allusion in the poem?
What is the pattern or rhyme scheme of the poem?
Discuss in partners

4. The allusion “So Eden sank to grief” (Frost, Line 6)
This line alludes to Eden
Eden was also once, though briefly, a golden, flowering place until Eve and that apple
This shows again, that nothing gold can stay

5. Relationship to characters
What relevance or relationship does this poem hold to the characters?
Think about characters that pass away in the book; are they a symbol for the idea that nothing gold can stay?
Can any of the characters be considered ‘gold’?

6. Meaning of the lines
“Nature's first green is gold” (Frost, Line 1) : early leaves are a golden-green color, almost yellow when they are very new and young
“Her hardest hue to hold” (Frost, Line 2): this color fades quickly as the leaf grows and deepens to darker green

7. Nothing gold can stay “Nothing gold can stay” (Frost, Line 8)
Multiple meanings:
a mourning for the golden things, for youthful things, time passing or times past
it is the nature of beautiful things to last only briefly and then become bland, mundane, or fade away entirely. In the case of the leaf, it has one more beautiful moment in the fall and then dies. the poem is about the cycle of life
things are always more beautiful when they're young