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.

Poem by Robert Frost

What does it mean ? I remember it was in the movie "The Outsiders"
heard it today on another show . I always liked it ,, kind of sad .. I think its like a plug ,, all shiny and new and pissa looking .. As the season wears on,, with hook swing, salt, fish and the rocks. The once beautiful , shiny prize is a tattered beaten mess adorned by rusting hooks .. nothing gold can stay ..

Stay golden Tagger-boy!:)

as a poet i'm sure Robert FROST thought about his last name sometimes...

natures first green is gold - as buds swell on bushes and trees, or
after a long cold winter to have everything turn green again
is as precious as gold... as in the metal, and the green grasses return which we so long to see..a new season of growth

her hardest hue to hold -is a reference to the changing bud into green leaves as the buds open... and how often it changes

her early leafs a flower - as they go into flowering cycle

but only so an hour

then the tree or bush flowers and changes color once again
until the flowers drop off ...more than an hour but its fast and fleeting ...the washington cherry blossoms last maybe 2-3 weeks
for example...

those flower petals drop off leaving or subsiding until there's just leaves now .... all back to green...

Then the green completely fades as cold weather arrives..........

after that it becomes so colorful and glorious heading into fall
with the brightly colored leaves capturing the sun as it shines through them.... as colorful as can be..... it's like EDEN (paradise)

eden then drops all her leaves to the ground...the color changes back to a drab brown once again...and as the colors fade the landscape becomes sad and depressing with the knowledge another winter will arrive bringing back the cold

dawn goes down to day sort of a reference to the foliage being gone and the brilliant hues (colors of dawn) are now lost and only warm sunshine is left...
that shines thru the bare trees rather brightly with so little foliage
and lower angle of the sun

nothing gold can stay - as eventually all the leaves now on the ground all turn back to all brown and gets covered up completely with snow...

so to me... it's about the changing of the seasons from spring to summer to fall and the poetry is to explain the emotions of seeing the changes happen... ( just my interpretation of course...)

he wrote it to have special meaning to those who could decipher the riddle ..... to experience the sadness he felt ....

There is nothing that Frost wrote that wasn't extraordinary!

The only sad part is "eden sank to grief" for us all. Fall is coming.

It's a description of a sunrise and the beginning of a new day to it's end. He uses an analogy of similarity of a flowers bloom, life then fading and dying to the sunrise of a new day and it's hue of color from first light's green blue glow to golden sky of sunrise to losing the last golden rays at days end.

It tells you how nothing however beautiful or valuable lasts for ever.

I wrote this one on the night of April 23rd 2007, after receiving the news that one of my employees, a good, smart young man with a lot of potential was killed in a motorcycle accident in Wareham.

I couldn't sleep so, as usual, I took up the pen to help me through.

WHO KNOWS WHAT TOMORROW BRINGS?

Who knows what tomorrow brings?
Rays of sun and warmer things,
Spring, it's newness in the air,
does us justice all most fair.

Where does one go when darkness falls?
Who seeks the means to spoil it all?
The cold green wave of sinister things,
Crashes upon us and sorrow brings.

The lives of many go so long,
for others though that road be gone.
And who is left to carry on,
shall rise and toil come the dawn.

Forget them not those that pass,
see the face of what was good.
A real heart is glass not flesh and blood
Lies cracked and broken, all emotions flood.

Is it fair or not I couldn't say
For no one knows what tomorrow brings
For tomorrow is just.......another day.

For Josh,

Steve Shiraka April 23rd, 2007

Thats nice Flap .. alot of thought there..

This is someone eles explanation of the Robert Frost poem, I kind of like ..
At first I thought it to be about the cycles in life, the changes. Maybe because I was an optimist, I wanted so badly to believe the gold could come back. Now though I think of life as going around once. The gold doesn’t reoccur with the seasons as I had once hoped. Because once you’ve lost the gold, lost the innocence the view you have on everything changes. Things become darker, because reality in its entirety has moments of bleakness. Once you’ve faded, once the gold is chipped there’s no going back. Blinders can’t take away what’s already been seen. In some respects I feel as if with the loss of my grandmother so young the gold has been peeled off of me. So I’ve tried to stay pure in the ways I can control. Who wouldn’t want to cling to gold? It’s hard in a world like this.

This is someone eles explanation of the Robert Frost poem, I kind of like ..
At first I thought it to be about the cycles in life, the changes. Maybe because I was an optimist, I wanted so badly to believe the gold could come back. Now though I think of life as going around once. The gold doesn’t reoccur with the seasons as I had once hoped. Because once you’ve lost the gold, lost the innocence the view you have on everything changes. Things become darker, because reality in its entirety has moments of bleakness. Once you’ve faded, once the gold is chipped there’s no going back. Blinders can’t take away what’s already been seen. In some respects I feel as if with the loss of my grandmother so young the gold has been peeled off of me. So I’ve tried to stay pure in the ways I can control. Who wouldn’t want to cling to gold? It’s hard in a world like this.

Interepting the written word is subjective. One mans understanding of and what a piece does for him can be different than the next. Its fun and exciting.