Nothing Gold Can Stay

“Nothing Gold Can Stay” is, sans the last line, written in iambic trimeter. Each line contains three iambs (an unstressed syllable, followed by a stressed syllable), creating six beats per line. In the New England dialect “flower” (Line 3) is pronounced as a single syllable, more like “flour” than “flow-er.” Thus, all the lines conform to the pattern except the last. The evenness of the meter creates part of the sense of sound, or tone, which Frost found essential to the success of his poetry. At first, the even rhythm is pleasing to the ear, which explains in part why the poem is easy to memorize. As the poem progresses, this evenness begins to create an underlying plodding tone much like a dirge—something sad and unstoppable. This is echoed in the imagery and enhanced by the last line which stops one syllable short of six, creating a cut off feeling that resounds the despair of the latter four lines. Changing the meter of the last line also shows that whatever progress has been made is truncated.

The rhyme scheme of “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is simple: aabbccdd.