Fern Hill Nothing Gold Can Stay Analysis

“Fern Hill” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” Life as a child is beautiful, not yet being exposed to the sins of the world they often find themselves experiencing something new every day and know not the monotony of adulthood. After being exposed to the pains of life, many often reflect and reminisce over how their pasts could have been different, or how quickly the shining lights in a child’s eyes are replaced with the dull luminescence of monotony and reality. While both “Fern Hill” and “Nothing Gold Can Stay” portray thematic ideas concerning the loss of childhood, “Fern Hill” expands upon the details of a farm boy’s life and dissention into reality while “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is brief but far-reaching into many other realms of life. However, they both serve as an effective reminder of the mortality of innocence. “Fern Hill’s” length allows the narrator to expand on his ideas about childhood and allow him to add insightful imagery in order to present a snapshot of what his life was like. He captures the joys of boyhood with phrases like “young and

In “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” the narrator states that “natures first green is gold.” This idea can be split into two ideas. The word “green” has a connotation relating to both inexperience and nature. These two meanings allow for several different interpretations of “gold.” In a denotative sense, gold is an unchanging metal that doesn’t react and lasts the test of time. If this interpretation is taken then the narrator is stating that natures first green is eternal, but he juxtaposes this line with “her hardest hue to hold” and later “nothing gold can stay.” This morphs the meaning into something more metaphorical. Nature’s (and life’s) newness is not eternal in existence, but is eternal in memory. Being pure, the “greenness” of life is mortal because “leaf subsides to leaf.” Nothing physical changes, but life’s wonders soon become daily