The Inevitability of Change

The central theme of “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is the inevitability of change. This theme is dominant throughout the poem, introduced as early as its first two lines. These lines, “Nature’s first green is gold, / Her hardest hue to hold” introduce the theme of change as it relates to small images from the natural world, descriptors which apply to change’s presentation in five of the poem’s eight lines. The speaker discusses change through the visual splendor they observe – “gold” changes “hue” to “green,” “flower” “subsides to leaf” (1-3). These examples of change are striking in several ways. As visual shifts occurring in the natural world, these changes are mundane and easily observed. The poem goes on to make loftier poetic and referential moves (like alluding to the fall of man), but by framing change in terms of the natural world...