16 pages 32 minutes read

Robert Frost

Nothing Gold Can Stay

Fiction | Poem | Adult | Published in 1923

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Related Poems

"Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost (1924)

“Fire and Ice” is another short poem—nine lines—from New Hampshire and like “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” highlights Frost’s use of natural elements (fire, ice) to convey a discussion regarding human emotion (desire, hate).

"Acquainted with the Night" by Robert Frost (1928)

“Acquainted with the Night” was published in The Virginia Quarterly in 1928 and appeared later in his collection West-Running Brook. It uses imagistic observation to grapple with mortality and the passage of time. Its form is more complex—14 lines of terza rima, an interlocking rhyme—but its melancholy tone is similar to that of “Nothing Gold Can Stay.”

This long poem was written by William Wordsworth, the English Romantic poet, in 1804. Frost admired Wordsworth’s poetry about nature and its mutability but takes a bleaker view of the passage of time than Wordsworth does in this poem. Both poems discuss the stages of man and losing the innocence of childhood, but while Wordsworth feels that this loss aligns humans with others in solidarity and hope, Frost is more succinct and more despairing.

Related Titles

By Robert Frost

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Acquainted with the Night

Robert Frost

Acquainted with the Night

Robert Frost

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A Time To Talk

Robert Frost

A Time To Talk

Robert Frost

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Dust of Snow

Robert Frost

Dust of Snow

Robert Frost

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Fire and Ice

Robert Frost

Fire and Ice

Robert Frost

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Once by the Pacific

Robert Frost

Once by the Pacific

Robert Frost

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Out, Out—

Robert Frost

Out, Out—

Robert Frost

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Putting in the Seed

Robert Frost

Putting in the Seed

Robert Frost

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Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Robert Frost

Stopping By Woods On A Snowy Evening

Robert Frost

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The Death of the Hired Man

Robert Frost

The Death of the Hired Man

Robert Frost

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The Gift Outright

Robert Frost

The Gift Outright

Robert Frost

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West-Running Brook

Robert Frost

West-Running Brook

Robert Frost