Mary Branham Carter AP Literature and Composition 6 March 2014 Robert Frost and his Musical Devices 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. 5 So Eden sank to grief, So dawn goes down to day. Nothing gold can stay.

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It has been proven through the science of evolution and the continual experiences of life that the world and everything on it, is incessantly evolving. Thus, beings of life and their current circumstances can only exist for so long. Robert Frost creates an image of this in his poem "Nothing Gold Can Stay" written in the form of an allegory. He uses musical devices to accomplish this as well as connotation of strategically chosen diction. One fundamental musical device Robert Frost uses is rhyme. His rhyme scheme being AABBCCDD, consist of both masculine and feminine rhymes. All of Frosts rhymes are end rhymes, such as the feminine rhyme in lines 3 and 4, and the masculine rhymes in the remaining lines. Rhyming is simply a part of the poem because it is appealing to the ear. The rhymes help bring the poem together as a whole and create unity. He also uses assonance. For example, leaf, (5) leaf, (5) Eden, (6) and grief (6 all have the same reoccurring vowel sound of long e. This similarity in sounds causes the words and lines to have a more natural flow as the words come off of the tongue. The reoccurring long e sound also ensures a feeling of dread, through its heavy sound.

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Frost delves into even more musical devices with alliteration and consonance. Her hardest hue to hold (2) has alliteration in full effect due to the letter h at the start of the majority of the words words in this line. Alliteration is also evident in: So dawn goes down to day (7) with dawn (7), down (7), and day (7) all beginning with the letter d. Consonance is then apparent in Her early leafs a flower (3) with the letter l repeatedly placed. Having the same purpose of purely wanting to add flow and unity to the poem, alliteration and consonance were used. The musical devices add aesthetics to the raw idea. Aside from the vast use of musical devices, Frosts poem relies on connotation to be properly interpreted. The word first implies newness, originality, pureness and innocence. The word green has the similar meaning of newness as well as growth, and life. Gold then having the connotations of warmth, richness, power, strength and perfection. Therefore when written, Natures first green is gold Frost is referring to new life, Natures first green (1), and its beauty is gold (1), and setting the grounds for a developing allegory. Frost next refers to Nature (1) as Her (2), personifying nature in a feminine way, perhaps suggesting that nature is a pure and delicate thing and the mother to the green (1). Early (3) is used entailing the same feelings of newness and innocence that first (1) does previously in the poem. Flower (3) is used, once again creating a feminine and soft image of fragile blooming beauty. The first three lines of the poem consist of words with connotations of strong beauty yet feminine delicateness. However, once But (4) is said, the tone shifts as the speaker is preparing for something opposed to the strength and beauty that has been discussed. But only so an hour (4) is the poems way of saying that the beauty of new life cannot last forever. The allegory continues. Each day in nature is representative of a human life. People are born as miraculous innocent

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creatures, they are birthed gold (1). They are the green of the earth with their fresh skin and newness to world. However, the second the word But (4) is mentioned, a contrary, much more harsh reality is about to be explored. When the speaker starts the next line with then (5), it makes it sound as the loss of the flower (3) is a routine that the speaker knows absolutely too well, and what is about to follow is simply just the next step of what usually follows. The allegory, that is the poem, is perhaps an experience that the speaker has experienced many times: the loss of innocence and youth. Leaf [subsiding] to leaf (5) is representative of a person growing older. Frost chooses to repeat the word leaf (5) as if it is not subsiding to become something less that is completely different, but perhaps only becoming what it was always meant to be, and always actually was. This could also be said for a young child. A baby is not meant to live a life that is sheltered for eternity, but to grow older and gain intelligence and through this, eventually their innocence is wiped away by life somehow. Examining further, Eden (6), alluded from The Garden of Eden from the Bible, which crafts imagery of Gods creation in the form of nature. Frost personalizes Eden (6) like he does Nature (1). Frost makes Nature (1) and Eden (6) interchangeable as the giver of life and care taker. Allegory wise, Nature (1) is the mother that births a beautiful baby, and Eden (6) is the protective attached father that breaks at the inevitable growing up of his child. Therefore, as leaf subsides to leaf (5) and children grow into own, dawn goes down to day (7) as their fathers have no choice but to accept the change that their new baby is no longer a child, but a gown independent adult. Parents of a child enjoy every moment of it because the child will grow and experience tragedy and their idea of a perfect world fades, because Nothing gold can stay (8). Gold (8) is lost just as the childs youth.

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Robert Frost is able to convey an experience of loss through a lovely scene of nature. He turns something sorrowful and makes it beautiful. The use of musical devices create an exquisite flow to his idea. The connotation as well contributes to the greatness of the poem that is all compacted into a relatable allegory.

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Works Cited Frost, Robert. "Nothing Gold Can Stay." Poets.org. Academy of American Poets, n.d. Web. 08 Mar. 2014.