“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 …show more content…
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
Fantastical Realization Fantasy and fiction flood most of our childhood but, the older a child gets, the quicker fiction turns to fact as slowly but surely, the rug of fantastical imagination is pulled out beneath them. This is exactly the case in Li-Young Lee’s short poem A Story. A Story is about a father who struggles to tell stories to his son, but as the boy grows older, his coming of age begins to make their relationship complex. Even though the complexity of the relationship is never directly stated, Lee shows this idea through point of view and literary devices. found in the poem.
In the poem “On turning Ten '' by Billy Collins and in the short story “ Marigolds” written by Eugenia W. Collier, both authors talk about how life has changed and the end of their childhood based on situations of their past life. In the poem and the short story, both authors explore the impact of losing innocence by describing their memory and discovering the truth. Both authors show how emotional it was to face the truth and reality based on his and her memories. In “Marigolds”, she starts losing her innocence when she “Never heard a man cry before” (Collier 42) and how she discovered Miss Lottie wasn’t frustrated with the situation at the end but was upset. In “On Turning Ten” he realizes “I skin my knees.
In the novel, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, Ponyboy recites the poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, written by Robert Frost. With this text allusion, it really gets us thinking about the meaning the poem holds. Unquestionably, the first two lines of the work grasp the reader, stating that everything good has to come to a bitter end. Tying this in with The Outsiders, we are aware that the color gold is very prominent. Symbolizing youth and well-being, we can tell that the sentence is stating a negative point.
In “Nothing Gold Can Stay” it states,” Nature’s first green is gold.” When someone hears this they might think of a nice place that has nice weather and is very peaceful. Also, in “Nothing Gold Can Stay” it is developing the idea of youth because you cannot be young forever. Eventually you will be old and not be be able to much and it won’t be as good and enjoyable as your younger days.
“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” Robert Frost.
The element called gold can almost stay forever. Elements are what most things in the universe are made of. But what does the meaning "Nothing Gold can Stay"? And how do The Outsiders somehow relate to it? It could honestly have more meanings than one if you really, really thought about it.
Visual imagery aids the reader in understanding the loss of innocence of a boy amid such despair and the transformation that follows. Through these literary features, the author
Alice Walker uses imagery and diction throughout her short story to tell the reader the meaning of “The Flowers”. The meaning of innocence lost and people growing up being changed by the harshness of reality. The author is able to use the imagery to show the difference between innocence and the loss of it. The setting is also used to show this as well.
It is wholly recurrent to blindly skim through a detailed piece of literature and be unconscious to the likeness it shares with other pieces of literature. I am surely guilty of this ignorant practice, however. As I was reading “Hanging Fire” by Audre Lorde and “On Turning Ten” by Billy Collins, I didn’t truly perceive the connection right away. The obvious was already divulged in my mind; they’re both in the points of views of children. They, however, both have a mutual theme; growing up brings uncertainty and disappointment.
In one moment it’s ripped away from them: the only thing keeping them young; the only thing keeping them shielded from the world. It’s the mother watching her fatherless daughter cry over his coffin. It is the boy being slapped by his loving father for the first time. I That thing is known as “loss of innocence”, but is it really a loss? All one loses is their naivety and artlessness.
Not only does The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton resemble the importance of “Staying gold”, “Nothing Gold Can Stay” By Robert Frost and “Stay Gold” By Stevie Wonder also support what “Stay gold” symbolizes. Through the novel The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton incorporates many motifs of staying gold. This can include, “...You’re gold when you’re a kid, like green. When you're a kid everythings new, dawn. It’s just when you get used to everything that it’s day.
Neil Gaiman is a Hugo award winning British author of short stories, graphic novels, comic books, audio titles and films. Some of his notable works include ‘Stardust’, ‘Neverwhere’, ‘Good Omens’, ‘The Sandman’ series of graphic novels, etc. ‘The Ocean At The End of The Lane’ written by Neil Gaiman, is a book that is spoken through a child’s perspective, of the world around him. The book deals with the unstable emotions that the protagonist, a child goes through that eventually leads to a disconnect between his childhood and adulthood.
In some works of literature, childhood and adolescence are portrayed as times graced by innocence and a sense of wonder; in other works, they are depicted as times of tribulation and terror. In Lord of the Flies by William Golding the author portrays that children are not completely innocent. Golding’s representation of childhood and adolescence also shows us the attitudes children have towards participating in work. In Lord of the Flies Golding portrays that children are not completely innocent.
In the short story “The Flowers”, Alice Walker sufficiently prepares the reader for the texts surprise ending while also displaying the gradual loss of Myop’s innocence. The author uses literary devices like imagery, setting, and diction to convey her overall theme of coming of age because of the awareness of society's behavior. At the beguining of the story the author makes use of proper and necessary diction to create a euphoric and blissful aura. The character Myop “skipped lightly” while walker describes the harvests and how is causes “excited little tremors to run up her jaws.”. This is an introduction of the childlike innocence present in the main character.
With the novel being read from a ‘twelve’ year old whose history motivates his understanding, perception and interpretation of the events he encounters and interprets to the reader,