“Nothing Lasts Forever”
ENG125: Introduction to Literature
Instructor Shawn Mangerino
November 25, 2013
Patricia Martinez

In all aspects of life we have a beginning and an end. Not many things last forever and if they do they do not usually stay the same. In life things change, and they end. I believe the pieces I have chosen both speak of endings and changes. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” describes a sunrise and the beauty of it and how that beauty fades as the sun continues to rise. In “I Used to Live Here Once” the main character is remembering her childhood home and in the story visits the home and describes the changes. I choose these pieces because they are both about endings and change and use symbolism to describe the changes. These pieces both show the change in a very detailed way even though one is a poem and the other a story. In comparison they may not look the same but when you read the words in both you can imagine what is being seen and feel that you can see it fade, as nothing lasts forever. In the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” I found it is full of symbolism. "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.” (as cited in Clugston, 2010) In the poem the first line states “Natures first green is gold” the symbolism I find in this line is green refers to new life or birth, often times you hear of someone young being considered green. This is a reference to being new. When the sun first comes up everything looks gold. Gold to me a reference to the colors created by the rising sun and refers to what we all cherish. Gold has always been something people seek to own, its considered a treasure. So in saying “Natures first green is gold” it’s being stated that the morning is like a birth and the gold is the morning treasure of this newness. The next line states “Her hardest hue to hold” the symbolism in this line is referring to the newness not lasting. As the sun rises higher in the sky the colors change and newness fades with the changing colors. The golden sky doesn’t last, the newness fades. “Her early leaves a flower, but only so an hour” this is symbolizing time and the fact that time is precious. The flower is considered to be a thing of beauty this beauty doesn’t last forever it fades with time. So this symbolizes beauty fading with time. “Then leaf subsides to leaf, so Eden sank to grief” this is symbolizing the beginning of the end. The leaf subsides to leaf represents to me the ending, and the colors running together with the changing of the sun. The brightness and newness fades away. Eden sank to grief is symbolizing the grief that is felt when the beauty fades and you have to give up. “Dawn goes down to day, Nothing gold can stay” this symbolizes the changes we face and the fact that beauty fades with time. Nothing gold can stay, is stating that with time and age beauty fades and things change. I don’t see this poem as referencing death but I do see it symbolizes change in a great way. Life is constantly changing but I believe this poem not only talks about that but in the beginning it is hopeful with the first green and the gold. The beauty of a new day and a new chance it what this part of the poem represents to me. The short story “I Used to Live Here Once” in this story the main character is telling the story from her point of view. She is also telling the story from death. There are many things that offer symbolism in this story. When she is referring to the sky looking glassy and she doesn’t remember that from before it has this look because she is dead. I also found symbolism in how she remembered the stones she stepped on to cross the river. I found the way she remembered these symbolizing safety she felt in that area. She remembered the area and with great detail to me this symbolizes comfort and safety. The other reference to death in this story is when she sees the children playing in the yard that was once hers. She says hello and they ignore her and look right through her and then they state it suddenly got cold. These are both references to death, often times you hear of ghosts leaving an area feeling suddenly cold and a ghost cannot be seen. Symbolism is used in this story in different ways but the symbolism of death also relates to ending. This story is told in such a way you can relate to that old familiar childhood home. Her going back to this home after death symbolizes her going home when she has passed on. This was home to her and she returned there after death. Poems tell stories just as a short story does but with fewer words and more emotion. When you read a poem you are taken to the place the writer was at when they wrote it. You can feel, imagine because of how it is written and the words used. Poems leave more room for imagination and interpretation. You have few words and they normally flow together, poems are wispy and almost magical to an extent. You can get lost in a poem because you have to use so much imagination to get to the place the writer was at. The tone of a poem has to be set just right for the reader to understand what the writer is saying. Setting the tone is done by using words with emphasize on a particular sound and also by rhyming. In the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” the tone is set with the words used. Emphasis is placed on many of the words used. The emphasis on the words leads you to infer different meanings. In this poem you are left with your imagination to see what the writer is showing us. If you simply read the words and don’t imagine any other meaning you are just seeing a sunrise moving into day light. The way he places meaning on the sunrise and the beauty of it, I see the meaning he places on each new day. Waking up is your first green. In the morning everything is brighter and prettier. Your day has just begun and there is beauty to be found in it. This is where I go with this poem. In the end ‘Nothing Gold Can Stay” this tells you to make the most of the day because it will end. They all do. This is my favorite poem and the many meanings that can be read into it keeps me enjoying it. Imagination and words are the only two things I are needed to make a poem. Putting these two together with meaning and setting the tone makes the poem beautiful and tells the story the writer is trying to get across. Short stories are made up of more details and words than a poem. They give you more information and more background about the setting the characters. When reading a short story you are usually given the plot, setting and character background. You have less left to your own imagination. The way you interpret a story changes based on your age, religion, and family background. When you are reading the story you put yourself in it and your reactions could be different than what the writer intended. There are many different types of stories that are told. I believe the story “I Used to Live Here Once” is a tale. This story is being told by a person after they are dead. People cannot speak once they are dead so the story is a tale, it’s not true. Getting lost in a story is one of the great joys of a story. You can get lost in the words and your imagination. Stories take you to places you may only dream of. In the story you are there though. In this story the person is on the path to her childhood home. She explains the surroundings in such a way you can imagine it. When she describes the river that she crosses on the stones you can imagine each stone through the way she describes them and you can imagine her jumping gently from stone to stone. This story is very descriptive and in the description it makes it feel familiar. The ending of the story you feel the heavy weight of realization that this woman is dead. When the last line is stated it hits hard. The journey this story takes you on is a great one in your imagination and it takes us to an ending the same as the poem I choose does. The ending, is where things change and you realize the woman is dead. Dying is an ending of one’s life so it is a great ending. In both the poem and the story the plot is the same. I find the plot is taking us from a beginning to a final ending. Both of these pieces take us through the steps that lead to an ending. We get to see the sunrise and the beautiful colors in the poem and in the story the beginning is the familiar path she describes. This is the beginning for the journey through each. In the middle of both the descriptions continue things start bringing us closer to the ending. Then we finally come to the ending. When we arrive at the ending it does just that it ends. These plots are the same when I read these both. I know interpretations can be different and the next person reading them both may not interpret the same. To fully appreciate how these two works of literature create their themes, we should analyze the form. The poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is a very evocative thought provoking poem but it does not fall into one category of form. This poem seems to fall short in some poem forms and because it is so thought provoking and evocative it is too much for other types of form. The meaning and depth of these few short lines is solid. The poem does not follow the typical guidelines to fall into any one category of form. If I had to pick a form for this poem I would choose sonnet. This short poem flows the way a sonnet would to me. This poem doesn’t not have all of the typical features of a sonnet, like length and iambic pentameter but the flow of the few lines and words are put together to me as a sonnet. The way the words are put together to come to the final conclusion the form of this poem is most like that of a sonnet. In the story I used to live here once the form used for it is allegory. “Simply put, an allegory is a story that is designed to illustrate an abstract concept or system that exists outside the story.” (Clugston, 2010) This story uses these theme throughout when she is describing the path to her childhood home from her point of view. The abstract concept that I find in this story is childhood and her stroll down memory lane so to speak. The path to her is the same in spite of the differences she notices and describes to us. She still feels that this is her home although she no longer lives there as she is dead. The abstract form we are following is her leading us to her childhood home not fully aware that she is dead. The two forms are very different from each other. In the poem it is short and the point is made with very few words. This leaves it open for interpretation. The story we are given more information and we are being guided through the story through the main character’s eyes. We are seeing what she sees. In the poem we aren’t told what to see, we use more feeling in the poem. In imagining the sunrise you can imagine how you would feel seeing the colors described, you can almost feel the brisk morning coolness. In the story all of these things are laid out for us so we feel a little less and imagine a little more. The finalization and ending in both pieces are shown through many different aspects of symbolism. The writers of these works lead you to feel what they are feeling. When you allow yourself to get caught up in the reading you can imagine what they are seeing and you can feel what they are feeling. Through the comparisons you can clearly see they are not the same, but they both have the same theme and use of symbolism is very strong in both works.

References:
Clugston, R. W. (2010). Journey into literature. San Diego, California: Bridgepoint Education, Inc.
Milhauser, S. (2008, October 3). The ambition of the short story. The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/05/books/review/Millhauser-t.html