“Nothing Gold Can Stay”

Thesis: Robert Frost utilizes a variety of literary devices to convey his belief that innocence, though an essential part of youth, must be relinquished before adulthood.

            Color symbolism in Robert Frost’s poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” sets up the idea of innocence in children.  The beginning of the poem states, “Nature’s first green is gold, / Her hardest hue to hold” (Frost 1-2).  “Nature’s first green” is the first sign of life in the spring and can be metaphorically compared to childhood.  Describing this first sign of life, or childhood, as gold elicits a feeling of goodness since gold is often symbolic of wealth and prosperity.  However, in this poem gold is symbolic of a child’s innocence.  The second line of the poem establishes how hard it is to keep one’s innocence because inevitably one grows old.  Frost sets up the idea that the innocence of childhood is the beauty of life, yet it is one of the most challenging things to hold on to.

“My mistress’ eyes”

Thesis: The speaker makes use of a tone shift to show that although his mistress’ looks are not great he loves her anyways.

            In many love poems the poet focuses on strong comparisons of the woman’s physical features with aspects of nature.  Shakespeare’s “My mistress’ eyes” seems to follow the traditional structure, yet it puts a twist on the traditional style by inverting the common comparisons.  The speaker describes his mistress by saying her “eyes are nothing like the sun” (1), “If snow be white, why then her breasts are dun” (3), and “no such roses see I in her cheeks” (6).  Each of these comparisons is the exact opposite of the traditional.  Normally, comparisons such as these would complement a woman, but Shakespeare chooses to invert these comparisons and describe her unflattering features.  Through these demeaning comparisons Shakespeare establishes dejected tone that leads the reader to believe that he does not love his mistress.  However, in line twelve there is a major tone shift that unlocks the speakers true meaning.   The last two lines of the poem read: “And yet, by heaven, I think my love as rare/As any she belied with false compare” (12-13).  The speaker’s tone shifts to loving and establishes that although his woman is not the prettiest woman he still loves her, and his love for her is like any other man’s love.  Shakespeare’s use of a tone shift helps to establish the point that although the woman is not as beautiful as others the speaker still loves her as any man loves a woman.

“The Rhodora” vs. “Design”

Thesis: Emerson’s “The Rhodora” and Frost’s “Design” both address the question of why things exist and they have a similar first half, but the second halves of the poems highlight the contrasting views of the two speakers.

Imagery

            “The Rhodora”

“I found the fresh Rhodora in the woods, / Spreading its leafless blooms in a damp nook” (2-3).

            “Design”

“I found a dimpled spider, fat and white, / On a while heal-all, holding up a moth” (1-2).

In both of the above quotations the speaker is describing something that they see in nature.  In “The Rhodora” the speaker is describing where he sees the flower and what it is doing.  In “Design” the speaker is describing the location of the spider, heal-all, and moth in relation to each other.  Each of the quotations above are just one example the the extensive imagery used throughout the first eight lines of each poem describing the complexities of each scene.

Shift

            “The Rhodora”

“Rhodora! if the sage’s ask thee why” (9).

The shift occurs in the audience.  The audience during the first eight lines of the poem doesn’t play a major role; the scene is just being described.  However, in the second half of the poem the audience shifts to become the rhodora.  The apostrophe shows a respect for the flower and it humanizes the flower to an extent, adding to the idea displayed in the end of the poem.

            “Design”

                        “What had that flower to do with being white” (9).

The shift in this poem occurs in the content of what the speaker is saying.  In the first eight lines the speaker describes what he sees.  In the second half of the poem the speaker is questioning why what he saw exists.  The speaker asks a series of questions relating directly to what he observed in the first half.  These questions then lead the speaker to his final conclusion of why these things exist.

Contrasting Ideas

            “The Rhodora”

                        “The self-same Power that brought me there brought you” (16).

The capitalization of “Power” is meant to indicate that the power is God because whenever God is referenced the word being used is capitalized because it is acting as a proper noun.  With the power being God, it can be concluded that the speaker believes that the same God who brought him to Earth brought the Rhodora.   This speaker believes that God creates things having a well-intentioned purpose in mind; he believes that beauty itself is a good enough reason for existence. 

            “Design”

“What but design of darkness to appall? - / If design govern in a thing so small (13-14).

The speaker claims that the designer, God, has only created the situation with the spider, moth and heal-all to appall.  This idea goes against the more commonly accepted idea that God creates things for good.  The speaker believes that things only exist because God makes them, but he also thinks that the small and insignificant things are made to be bad.

“‘Out, Out –’”

Thesis: Robert Frost uses imagery, syntax, and euphemism in his poem “‘Out, Out –’” to add to the dramatic effect of the young boy’s death.

Imagery

            “The buzz-saw snarled and rattled in the yard” (Frost 1)

Describing the buzz-saw as snarling and rattling in the yard creates an image of a hungry, chained guard dog waiting for food or intruders.  Raging guard dogs tend to cause fear in those that are near the dog and that is what Frost attempts to do with the saw; Frost tries to portray how terrifying the saw seems, especially to the young boy using it.  Portraying the fear of the saw adds to the dramatic effect of the boy’s death because it makes his death by scary saw much more bone-chilling.

            The saw “leaped out at the boy’s hand” (Frost 16)

With the image of the saw as a raging dog already established, the image of the saw leaping at a hand becomes quite frightening.  If one were to image themself as the boy they would be terrified by a thing as destructive as raging guard dog coming at their hand most certainly to destroy it.  The image of a leaping, snarling, rattling saw coming at one’s hand is meant to frighten the reader and make the reader feel as if their hand is the one being sawed off, heightening the dramatic effect of the boy’s death by saw.

Syntax

            “They listened at his heart, / Little–less–nothing!–and that ended it” (Frost 31-32)

The use of the dash when describing the sound of the heartbeat of the dying boy helps create the scene of his death.  When someone is dying and there is nothing the doctors can do, as is in this case, the scene is usually portrayed as having everything slow down until it stops.  The dashes help to create physical pauses that are both seen when reading the poem and heard when speaking the poem.  These pauses add to the dramatic effect of a heartbeat slowing down, which is associated with death.

Euphemism

            “And they, since they / Were not the one dead, turned to their affairs” (Frost 34)

“They” is referring to the other workers in the yard and “their affairs” is the work of the workers.  This statement shows how the workers reacted to the boy’s death; although the death was a tragedy, the other workers did not let the death get in the way of their work since their livelihood depends on how much work they complete.  This quotation is a euphemism for the fact that the workers cannot let the boy’s death interrupt their work, an idea that is unfathomable in current society, especially given the conditions of his death.  The lack of mourning for this tragedy adds to the dramatic effect because it makes the reader realize how awful and inhuman work was and how it seemed as if people didn’t care about what happened to child laborers.