Catherine's English Blog

Nothing Gold Can Stay By Robert Frost 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.   I chose this poem since even from reading the title, it's clear that he's writing about the idea that nothing good stays for too long. I think this definitely applies to life, nothing great ever stays but better things later come along. I think Frost's use of nature in the poem applies really well to life too since every season nature goes through different experiences. Although many of the seasons don't last long, as Robert Frost says: "only an hour or so", each year they end up maturing from different conditions. Frost is describing a cycle in this poem too, and I think this applies really well to life, how many experiences are cycles over again. Although the poem is short, I think it definitely describes...

The way Joe Brainard describes death https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/58250/death-56d23c74e8276 The poem that I chose explores the topic of death. I think the topic isn't something I avoid, but I think this poem portrays it in a way that faces death headfirst that is completely unfamiliar. Most people think about what happens after death, but rather than thinking about those possibilities, Joe Brainard almost minimizes what death should be thought of as, describing it more as an event or statistic. I really enjoyed his light satire and sarcasm throughout the poem. He tries to make learning and understanding the aftereffects of death this more lighthearted thought, and he definitely views it in a way extremely unfamiliar to me. Rather than talking about the importance of death and what it means, he rather says it's an extremely normal thing that happens to everyone.