Do you have a book that has inexplicably stayed with you after you read it? The Outsiders is one of those books for me. Every time I think of Robert Frost's Nothing Gold Can Stay, I go through all the emotions of having read the book for the first time when I was just a kid.
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 today.
Nothing gold can stay.
There is something about the theme, this intense desire to be something better, to honor something good in ourselves that becomes lost, that always speaks to me in different phases of my life. Is there a way to hold on to the goodness of youth? When I look at my niece, I think of her innocence and I curse the moments when she will begin to understand the cruelty of the world around her. How will that change her? Is there a way to learn about the world and hold onto that gold? I hope so.
"Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold."
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 today.
Nothing gold can stay.
There is something about the theme, this intense desire to be something better, to honor something good in ourselves that becomes lost, that always speaks to me in different phases of my life. Is there a way to hold on to the goodness of youth? When I look at my niece, I think of her innocence and I curse the moments when she will begin to understand the cruelty of the world around her. How will that change her? Is there a way to learn about the world and hold onto that gold? I hope so.
"Stay gold, Ponyboy, stay gold."
after reading the outsiders in middle school.. i memorized the poem.
ReplyDeletei still can recite it!
the ever so talented anna leely
haha. I will test you next time I see you!
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