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Nothing Gold Can Stay
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Nothing Gold Can Stay
by 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.
My first exposure to this poem was from the book THE OUTSIDERS by S. E. Hinton where the main character, Ponyboy, read the poem to Johnny while they were hiding out from the police. Pony confesses to Johnny that he didn't understand what the poem meant. Later, Johnny would tell Pony in a letter what the poem meant. Johnny writes that the Frost poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" meant that we should always appreciate the things one finds wondrous when one is young. Johnny encourages..."Stay gold, Ponyboy, Stay gold.."
This book "The Outsiders" was the fist book that really affected my heart as a young girl in middle school and I found it totally by chance. I had to do a book report for class and the report was due that next Monday. The day I went to the library was Friday after school right before the buses were due to arrive. I am a procrastinator now just as I was back then. So rushing into the small middle school library I quickly roamed the isle ways searching for something that would catch my eye. In despair, I grabbed a white and read hard cover book and took it to the checkout desk. I had no idea that I had a gem in my hand.
On the bus ride home, I started reading the book. It drew me in right away. I walked home, for nearly a mile, reading the book while I walked. I got home and sat on the couch and read the book until I finished late that night with tears in my eyes. I got my book report done but what I really ended up with was gold. True gold for a young reader and future writer. Also I got a poem, a first poem, by Robert Frost. One that told me to keep the innocence, to never lose my wonder with the world, and most of all to stay gold.
Am I too old now stay gold? Has the world lost all of its wonder in my eyes. Most days I feel it has but I keep trying. I feel like to lose that gold would be forfeiting my ability to write, to dream, to live. But maybe that feeling is wrong. Maybe I can live, dream, and write in this world when I see no wonder it. Maybe instead of a dreamer I can be a skeptic. There is a healthy love for skeptics in this world. Maybe I can be cynical and rant about the things I see, the things that bother me. There are times when I am cynical and do rant but I love to be the dreamer. I love to find wonder in the world. I would love to stay gold. But damn, its hard... its very hard in this world to stay gold.
Maybe Frost is right Nothing Gold Can Stay.
© Copyright 2008 Ellee Unfettered (UN: elleetwombly at Writing.Com).
All rights reserved.
Ellee Unfettered has granted InkSpot.Com, its affiliates and syndicates non-exclusive rights to display this work.
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