Gold

 Nothing Gold Can Stay

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.

Robert Frost

I always loved this poem but I see it in my own way, I guess. I see it as a tribute more to Autumn, than to spring as I was taught. What I see, of course, is a poetic reflection on the impermanent nature of things but also on the interdependent nature of things. There would be no beginning without a death...there would be no green in spring without the browning in Autumn. Autumn in my part of the world, and in the part of world where Robert Frost lived and wrote, is a beautiful, beautiful gold!I cannot see him not paying homage to that beauty.  The first green of spring is possible because of the gold of Autumn.  Those leaves fall to the earth in October, becoming that which allows the tree to leaf in the spring. So the first green leaf is really gold. 

There is also a thought conveyed in the poem that there is no holding on, no clinging to anything...just as the leaf cannot cling to its stage as a flower, its stage as a green leaf nor as a gold leaf.  I always thought he was playing with "the hardest hue to hold" thing.  Both the green and the gold are hard for the leaf to hold onto so we really do not know if he is referring to the green or the gold hue as being the hardest. But it is especially hard and more dramatic for that leaf in Autumn, for the leaf that is struggling to hold onto its position on the tree, to hold on to its life, is it not?   The colour change represents this inability the leaf has, that we all do not have to hang on to youth and to life. We cannot stop change.  Youth is so short-lived, as is life. "only so an hour". So everyone has so much to say about the line..."Then leaf subsides to leaf"  but I just see it as depicting the ever-changing nature of the leaf...to go from youth to age, to death, back to life.  One stage of the leaf gives way to another.  One leaf that falls in October gives way for another to emerge in April.  

"Eden sank to grief"...always reminded me of November...November is a very solemn month...skies are grey ...and trees that were once vibrant with colour are bare and empty of colour. This is what the gold gives way to. I believe  he was referring to the grief that comes when Eden (nature)...is no longer colourful, to that  dying part of the season before winter comes . And we are reminded simply, through these words,  that nothing gold can stay...nothing stays the same.  Everything is always changing including the green beauty of spring and the golden beauty of Autumn. 

Anyway...that is how I see that poem but heck,  what do I know?

All is well.