Nothing Gold Can Stay

Robert Frost · 1923

Catalog grade guidance: 6–12 — Eight short lines; the Eden allusion and compressed images need discussion.

8 content lines · 42 words · Est. recitation about 24 sec (approx.)

Public-domain text for reading and recitation practice. Source: Robert Frost, New Hampshire: A Poem with Notes and Grace Notes (New York: Henry Holt, 1923), first edition, Grace Notes, p. 84 (Internet Archive page images, leaf n98); cross-checked with Project Gutenberg #58611.Estimated time uses ~120 words/minute plus short pauses—not a contest rule.

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.