October’s memorization assignment is a poem by Robert Frost, “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” which was published in 1923. Because it is only eight short lines, please study the words, line breaks, spelling, and punctuation. As we read Something Wicked This Way Comes, think about how this poem reflects one of the novel’s themes.

Nothing Gold Can Stay
–Robert Frost

Nature’s first green(1) is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf’s a flower;
But only so an hour.
Then leaf subsides(2) to leaf.
So Eden(3) sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.

1. In Old English, “green” signified growth as well as a color. This poem contains several dual references; for example,

3. the Hebrew word Eden means “delight,” and is contrasted in this poem with “grief.”

2. to sink to a lower level