Gold

Gold is the poem’s central symbol, mentioned in both its first and last lines. Gold bookends the poem, its syntactical position emphasizing its symbolic importance. Gold first appears as the color of nature, its “first green” (1). Blossoming plants begin with gold colors, says the poem, and before changing to other more mundane shades (“green”) (1). “Gold,” however, has meaning in the poem beyond the literal color – gold symbolizes initial and transient beauty, a phase of natural and worldly phenomena that is lovely, pristine, and fleeting. The poem ends by stating that “Nothing gold can stay,” asserting that the world’s first beauty always “subsides” and Edenic gold is fleeting (5-8).

Nature

Nature is another of the poem’s major symbols. Like gold, nature exists in the poem as both itself (as nature) and as a symbol, this time a symbol generally representative of existence and the...