Evaluate the poem 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.

Nothing Gold Can Stay is a short poem of eight lines that contains subtle yet profound messages within metaphor, paradox and allegory. It is a compressed piece of work in which each word and sound plays its part in full.

Written when Frost was 48 years old, an experienced poet, whose life had known grief and family tragedy, the poem focuses on the inevitability of loss - how nature, time and mythology are all subject to cycles.

As with many a Frost poem, close observation of the natural world is the foundation for building poetic truths, inside of which lie hidden messages and ideas.

When the leaves start to show in the season of spring they are perceived as gold, but soon turn to familiar green and before too long they're fading as victims of time.

So it's possible to pick out three distinct associations:

the season of spring - holding on to precious color.
time - and the pace of life.
Eden - how humans experience grief and shame.