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Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost (1923): poems
Video: https://youtu.be/GicuPqdvLyY
Quizlet: https://quizlet.com/_6tsqda
Suggested Use:
Step 1: Look at the vocabulary. Check any words that you don’t know in your dictionary.
Step 2: Listen to the video. (Listen only. Don’t look at the poem yet).
Step 3: Practice the vocabulary on Quizlet
Step 4: Watch the video again. This time look at the poem. Read and listen at the same time.
Step 5: Practice the vocabulary on Quizlet again
Step 6: Listen one last time. The last time, don’t look at the poem.
Vocabulary
Proper Nouns
Nothing Gold Can Stay by Robert Frost (1923): poems
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.
Match each line of the poem with its corresponding meaning.
Vocabulary:
Eden /ˈiː.d ə n/ noun [ S ] ( also the Garden of Eden )
in the Bible, the garden where the first humans, Adam and Eve, lived in perfect happiness before they did not obey God and were ordered by Him to leave
hue /hjuː/ noun [ C ] COLOUR
1. (a degree of lightness, darkness, strength, etc. of) a colour
In the Caribbean waters there are fish of every hue.
subside /səbˈsaɪd/ verb [ I ] LESS STRONG
1. If a condition subsides, it becomes less strong or extreme
The police are hoping that the violence will soon subside.
As the pain in my foot subsided, I was able to walk the short distance to the car.
Answers:
Nature's first green is gold = Before things turn green in nature, they start out as golden.
Her hardest hue to hold. = But gold is nature’s most difficult color to keep for any length of time
Her early leaf's a flower; = For example, every spring for a short time there are golden flowers on tree branches before the green shoots of leaves take over the branches of a tree
But only so an hour. = However these golden flowers only last for a very short time
Then leaf subsides to leaf = Eventually, the golden flower must give way to a green leaf. And eventually, this green leaf itself will turn into a brown leaf as it gets old and decays.
So Eden sank to grief, = In the same way, in mythical times, the beautiful mythical garden of Eden was destroyed, just as now every year golden flowers and green leaves are destroyed when they grow old and die.
So dawn goes down to day = In the same way, every morning the beautiful pink and golden colors of sunrise of dawn fades into the normal boring colors of afternoon.
Nothing gold can stay. = Beauty is short lived and needs to be appreciated while it lasts, because soon it will be gone.
So, we can re-write the Robert Frost poem in the following prose:
In early springtime, gold flowers form on branches before the shoots of leaves take over the branches of a tree. These tiny gold flowers do not last long (because of the leaves that eventually form on the branches). Even the leaves eventually decay as all things seem to do: Eden, leaves, and a day. Beauty is short-lived and needs to be appreciated while it lasts.
But does this have the same impact? Is it as beautiful or as meaningful as the poetry? Why or why not?
How does poetry work in English?
Rhymes
First, notice the rhymes.
In English, we often use rhymes in poetry. Rhymes are words which have a different beginning sound, but the same last sound.
gold/hold
flower/hour
leaf/grief
day/stay
Rhyme Scheme: aabbccdd
A closed couplet is two lines of rhymed verse in which the meaning is made complete by the end of the second rhyme.
Nature's first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Syllables
Next, notice the syllable scheme. How many syllables are in each line? Is it the same for each line?
Meter
Meter is the formal measure of the natural rhythm of language as it falls into regular patterns of stress.
iambic trimeter: unstressed stressed rhythm with three stresses per line.
__________/________/______/__________
"So dawn goes down to day."
(unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed, unstressed, stressed)
Alliteration
This is the repetition of consonant sounds in the beginning of words to achieve a harsh or pleasing sound quality to the line or stanza.
"green is gold"
"her hardest hue to hold"
"dawn goes down to day"
Analysis of alliteration: The alliteration of the "g" sound in "green" and "gold" link these two words through sound. Not only does the poem assert that the first green is gold in meaning but it does so also in sound by echoing the sound of green with gold. Also, the alliteration of the "d" sound in "dawn," "down," and "day" makes these words stand out to the reader's ear. The emphasis in sound and in meaning is that the light of dawn goes down or is lost to the harsh light of day.
Economical Phrasing
This poem expresses complex ideas in a succinct manner.
For example, instead of saying:
In mythical times, the beautiful mythical garden of Eden was destroyed, in the same way that today every year golden flowers and green leaves grow old and die.
The poem simple says:
So Eden sank to grief
It is up to the reader to fill in the missing information and the missing meaning just from this small phrase.
Paradox
A paradox is a situation or statement which seems impossible or is difficult to understand because it contains two opposite facts or characteristics.
In other words, it’s a statement that appears to make no sense at first, but if you think about it longer you can find a way for it to make sense. What paradoxes can you find in this poem?
Imagery
Imagery is the representation of sensory experience through language.
"early leaf's a flower"
"Dawn goes down to day"
Analysis of imagery: The visual image of a tiny gold flower peeking out before the first signs of a leaf take over is a harbinger of spring. We easily miss its beauty because it is so small or because it lasts for such a short time. The image of dawn becoming day evokes the sight of early morning rays sifting through pink tinted clouds becoming harsher rays overhead. The loss of delicate light is lamented in the entrance to daytime. Both images give concrete illustrations of the ephemeral nature of the world's beauty.
Notice also how the author uses mythical imagery to create a fantastic feel. What mythic images can you find in the poem?
Vocabulary
dawn - the early morning when light first appears in the sky:
We woke at dawn.
flower - the attractive, coloured part of a plant where the seeds grow:
Here is a bunch of flowers.
gold - a valuable, shiny, yellow metal used to make coins and jewellery (symbol Au)
He wears a lot of gold.
being the colour of gold:
This is gold paint.
go down - to become lower in level:
Interest rates are going down at the moment.
green - being the same colour as grass:
The traffic lights turned green.
grief - great sadness
hard - difficult to do:
It must be hard to study with all this noise.
hue - a colour
leaf - a flat, green part of a plant that grows from a stem or branch:
This is an oak leaf.
nature - all the plants, creatures, substances, and forces that exist in the universe, which are not made by people:
I like to get out and enjoy nature.
sink - to go down or make something go down below the surface of water and not come back up:
Investigators still don't know what caused the ship to sink.
sink to - to go down to a lower level of something:
I can't believe that anyone would sink to such depths.
stay - to continue to be in a particular state:
The supermarket stays open late.
Eden - in the Bible, the garden where the first humans, Adam and Eve, lived in perfect happiness before they did not obey God and were ordered by him to leave
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