{"id":612,"date":"2022-10-23T16:28:55","date_gmt":"2022-10-23T16:28:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/?p=612"},"modified":"2022-10-23T16:33:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-23T16:33:17","slug":"phonological-analysis-of-robert-frosts-nothing-gold-can-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/?p=612","title":{"rendered":"Phonological Analysis of Robert Frost\u2019s\u00a0 \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay\u201d\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Nature\u2019s first green is gold,
Her hardest hue to hold.
Her early leaf\u2019s a flower;
But only so an hour.
The leaf subsides to leaf.
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.<\/p>“Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost<\/cite><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” opens with a phonological emphasis on the fricatives [f] and [s], invoking wispy, mystical imagery in the personification on \u201cNature,\u201d and in the miraculous phenomenon of sprouting plants. Along with the fricative sensation is a pull toward voiced velar stops in the sound, [g]. This produces imagery of its own as it leads the reader\u2019s mind toward similar sounds of nature such as \u201cgrowth\u201d and \u201cground.\u201d It is from such phonological imagery that one can fully behold the powerful, mystical moment in which a bright green sprout breaks through the soft ground of nature\u2019s bed and begins to grow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea of growth moves the reader to the next line, infused again with lightness through the glottal breath, [h]. The air-like sound reminds the reader of the brevity of life, as reflected in the words\u2019 meaning that the youthful \u201cfirst green\u201d color does not last long. The opening three lines summarize this brief state, and the sounds of lightness and wisps are then replaced in line 4 with the clock-like gongs of the back vowel [o]: \u201cBut only so an hour,\u201d reminding the readers of the hand time plays in life, and that all must eventually change, and ultimately die. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The iambic tetrameter of the piece leads to an interesting emphasis in line 5, \u201cThe leaf subsides to leaf.\u201d By placing emphasis on the second half of \u201csubsides,\u201d the reader hears a strong \u201csigh\u201d in the speakers voice, aided by the voiceless fricatives [f] and [s] encompassing it. The following line begins again with a gonging [o] in \u201cSo\u201d, as time continues, and the emphasis of stops and nasals evoke a despairing sensation along with the infamous scene as \u201cEden sank to grief.\u201d Line 7, heavy and coarse with the voiced alveolar stop, [d], represents through sound the \u201cdings\u201d and \u201cdongs\u201d of a clock at midday, as well as the harsh and hitting realization of the the universal truth that nothing can last forever. This leads to the final line, \u201cNothing gold can stay,\u201d which sums the preceding lines as it contains traces of all the sounds of the poem. It is the melancholic acceptance of this state of nature\u2014that which recognizes the value of earthen treasures, and the brevity of the moments we have to admire them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

16 September 2019<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Works Cited:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frost, Robert. \u201cNothing Gold Can Stay.\u201d The Norton Anthology of American Literature, Shorter <\/em>9th Edition, <\/em>Edited by Robert S. Levine, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2017, pp. 747.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nature\u2019s first green is gold,Her hardest hue to hold.Her early leaf\u2019s a flower;But only so an hour.The leaf subsides to leaf.So Eden sank to grief,So dawn goes down to day.Nothing gold can stay. “Nothing Gold Can Stay” by Robert Frost Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” opens with a phonological emphasis on the fricatives [f]…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[588,437,581,576,583,584,580,586,577,578,579,47,582,587,585],"class_list":["post-612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-critical-analyses","tag-alveolar","tag-eden","tag-fricative","tag-frost","tag-glottal","tag-iambic-tetrameter","tag-linguistic-analysis","tag-nasals","tag-nothing-gold-can-stay","tag-phonetics","tag-phonological-analysis","tag-robert-frost","tag-velar-stop","tag-voiced","tag-voiceless"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=612"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":641,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/612\/revisions\/641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bexroden.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}