What is the meter and rhythm for "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost?

Question

Haha. Nope. It's not homework. I'm actually teaching this tomorrow and am having some trouble pinpointing the meter, but I think I have it now.

Thanks for the help. I have the following:

The first foot of the poem is trochaic. The second and third foot of the first line are iambic.

It remains iambic for the next line. The first two feet of the third line are iambic, but "a flower" breaks into amphibrach.

The fourth and fifth lines go back to iambic trimeter.

In the sixth line, I marked that "So" was unstressed while Eden is a spondee. "Sank to grief" is amphimacer.

The seventh line is iambic trimeter.

The first foot of the last line is amphimacer with iambic foot following.

This seems to work.

Answer 1

"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."

The first and last lines of the poem are trochaic, (x/ x/ x/) and the middle six lines are iambic (/x /x /x).

Answer 2

NaTURE'S first GREEN is GOLD.
Her HARdest HUE to HOLD.
Her EARly LEAF's a FLOWER.
But ONly FOR an HOUR....

Clearly it's one of the two duple meters, iambic or trochaic, but since this sounds like homework, I'm not saying more. Go from there. :-)

ETA: Ah, not homework--thanks. "Flower" is being pronounced in a slang American way, like "flour," -- one syllable. Since meter is a question of "majority" rules instead of a strict science, this is iambic trimeter. The last line breaks it, but that's for emphasis.

Answer 3

Not exactly sure how to answer this one, but it is read alound in the movie "The Outsiders" and that may help you out. Tis one of my favorites by Frost. Very simple yet deep meaning all at the same time.