Following literary devices are used in the poem –

1. Imagery – Frost creates sense imagery. For example, “Nature’s first green”, “dawn goes down to day” and “leaf subsiding to leaf”
2. Personification – It is the major device of the poem because here everything inanimate including Nature is provided with human qualities. “Nature” is personified here.
3. Allusion – It is any kind of reference given in the work. Here, the poet alludes to the biblical Garden of Eden.
4. Metaphor – It is a figure of speech in which an expression is used to refer to something that it does not literally denote in order to suggest a similarity. Here, the description of Nature is an extended metaphor for the transience which is natural to everything we call real for us.
5. Alliteration- It is the repetition of sound in the same line. i.e. “So dawn goes down to day.”

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1. Summary of Nothing Gold Can Stay
2. Analysis of Nothing Gold Can Stay

Gold symbolises anything which is precious to us. In the poem, the word doesn’t refer to any wealth rather it implies that rare phase of colour of leaves which changes very soon. So, here gold stands for something which is rare and we will want to preserve it.

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1. Summary of Nothing Gold Can Stay
2. Analysis of Nothing Gold Can Stay

Following are the main themes in the poem Nothing Gold Can Stay:

• Transitoriness – It is a major thematic concern of the poem that everything will pass. Nature inevitably tends toward destruction.
• Cyclical Reality– The poem tells us that even if everything we hold close to us breaks down, there is a notion of cycle. The poem gives us an image of spring season and this season comes every year. The rebirth of gold is shown in the context of its own end.

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1. Summary of Nothing Gold Can Stay
2. Analysis of Nothing Gold Can Stay