After observing how my former students (Class 10 C, 2017) with whom I still share a social media group had grown silent for so long, I was intrigued to write this post.
I told them I understood how life sets its own priorities, and how the closeness (friends like teacher-student relationship) we once shared, more precious than gold, slowly fades with time. In explaining how all things come to an end, I also reminded them of what I used to tell them often: to enjoy the moment while it lasts. I have always advised them to value what they had, such as their school or classroom friendships, because such small things that they may appear, will not return once gone.
That reflection led me to Robert Frost’s, Nothing Gold Can Stay, a poem which I first studied during my Year eight English literature class. Although the poem hints pessimistic tone, suggesting that everything appearing worthy ultimately ends, I have never read it that way. I have always regarded it, instead, as a call to recognise the value of things precisely because they do not last. No matter how beautiful, strong, or powerful something is, nothing remains permanent. It is only that unlimited human desires that we often wish to hold on to what is fleeting, but we cannot.
As people take pride in their power, status, wealth, beauty, happiness, or fame, my mind goes back to Frost’s lines. And now with maturity in understanding and experience, I have come to realise that Frost’s words are much broader than nature. In his poem, the nature is the surface example, but the deeper idea is that relatable to anything beautiful, valuable, powerful, or seemingly permanent is vulnerable to change, loss, and impermanence.
The poem unfolds in this simple sequence:
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.
Frost begins with the beauty of nature, describing how the first green of spring appears almost golden and precious, but quickly changes into ordinary leaves. He then connects this temporary beauty to the loss of Eden and the passing of dawn into day, suggesting that everything precious is eventually subject to change or loss with time. What makes something gold in Frost’s sense is not only its beauty, but its brevity. The very fact that it cannot be held is what gives it its worth. It is this idea, gold as something precious because it is fleeting, that runs through each of the reflections below.
Status
A person who rises to prominence and fame may become respected, admired, famous or socially important. But often they fail to recognise that such status (gold) that gleams brightest at the point it is gained is temporary.
We observe someone’s success celebrated in the workplace but almost quickly forgotten when one resigns from the job. A once powerful political leader after losing power is almost invisible. A famous person loses relevance to the society when celebrity gene dies. Even a person who seems indispensable can be replaced.
Power
People possessing power tend to feel that power is permanent. For example, some leaders across the world believe that the system or the world exists or revolve around them. A powerful institution or world’s superpower may believe that their authority and dominance will last forever.
Like Frost’s first green, power appears strongest exactly when it is least likely to endure, mistaking its brief hour of dominance for something lasting. But history has it that even the strongest empires collapsed. Power of common people can change governments, and therefore some leaders fall. Institutions, however mighty or powerful, lose influence. People who once controlled others eventually become powerless.
Wealth
People who are affluent and well-off often display as if their wealth can secure their life without any illness, instability, or misfortunes. Yes, money can buy comfort, convenience, or better opportunity, but wealth can also disappear one day like any other thing. Even when the money remains, the person who accumulated it eventually leaves it behind. Wealth, too, is gold in the literal sense that it can be accumulated, displayed, and admired. However, it slips from one’s grasp exactly as Frost describes, quietly and inevitably.
Relationships
A friendship can be extraordinarily close at one stage of life and then gradually change. Even our own children one day grow away from their parents. Lovers who promised heaven during the first meet change. People move to different places to fulfil their own life’s priority and aspirations.
That does not necessarily mean that the relationships are meaningless. Like the first green of spring in Frost’s poem, a friendship is often at its most golden precisely because it does not last, and its temporary nature is what makes the experience precious.
Human Achievement
In today’s world, anything, such as promotion, recognition, or awards, that one achieves is considered gold or even more valued than gold. As one achieves the dream that they worked towards for many years, for a moment, they experience recognition, satisfaction, and fulfilment. That moment is an early leaf of gold. As time pass by, those accomplishments go on the shelf. The applause stops. Although the achievement is real, the feeling of having achieved it is temporary.
Political or Social Systems
Thinking of so-called global superpowers, leaders of this society increasingly believe that its current order is permanent and that their political ideology will always dominant. Likewise, a group of elites or wealthy class of certain community assume to appear untouchable. But it is only a matter of time that what looks unshakeable may not remain exactly as it is. Everything is bound to change, collapse, or completely be gone.
That, perhaps, is why Nothing Gold Can Stay.
