Nothing Gold Can Stay

“Eden” (Line 6) alludes to the idea of Paradise, and equates “[n]ature” (Line 1) to the famous biblical Garden of Eden prior to the Fall of Man. In the Christian creation story, Adam and Eve are expelled from Eden after they eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. God enacts this punishment to stop them from eating from the tree of life and thus gaining immorality. Frost calls on the mythic to highlight the idea that perfection is not lasting. With this reference, he emphasizes the lack of paradise’s permanence and the mortality of mankind—a transient state causing grief and sorrow. The overall tone of the poem is melancholy but the use of Eden as a symbol takes the loss from personal to epic, expanding beyond Frost’s personal emoting to connect to a broad audience of readers who all have their own tragedies.

The use of the word “gold” to describe “nature’s first green” (Line 1) is deliberately symbolic. Gold obviously serves as a color, but Frost could have used yellow instead. By using the word “gold” (Line 1), Frost implies not only the color but the value associated with the element.