NOTHING GOLD CAN STAY

Setting of the Poem

Written when Frost was 48 years old, an experienced poet, whose life had known grief
and family tragedy, the poem focuses on the inevitability of loss - how nature, time
and mythology are all subject to cycles.
The poem places us right in the gold glow of a spring sunrise while reminding us that
such beauty is only temporary, making us feel the presence of nature.
The poem mentions the Garden of Eden, and you can totally imagine yourself in a
place like this biblical paradise while you're reading. The long golden branches of
willow trees sweep the ground in the gentle morning breeze, and flowers are blooming
everywhere in sight. Birds, bees, and butterflies flit around, and the morning mist
makes everything shine. The sun is rising, and the purples, pinks, and yellows of the
morning are brilliant.
But all too soon, the sun is up and blazing, the flowers are wilting, and the trees have
turned from golden blooms to green leaves. The demands of the day, of our lives and
its worries, have jolted us out of paradise.

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

Setting of the Poem
The setting is a crossroads in woods: a place where two roads meet, one going one
way, one the other. It is not "lovely dark and deep" like the woods in one of Frost's
other famous poems, "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening." Instead, these
woods are just yellow, and our speaker is not, like in the other poem, in a horse drawn
cart, but on foot.
It's fall in this poem – the trees are turning colours, and the leaves are falling. It's
probably quite out, with the crisp smell of autumn in the air. There's a nice little road,
probably gravel or dirt, running through the woods, which suggests that there's a good
amount of traffic running through here. But it's early enough in the morning that the
fallen leaves are still fresh on the road, and one road is even grassy. Neither road
shows much sign of wear.
So here our speaker is, in the fall without a map or a worn path to lead him on his
way. Overall, this setting would be a pretty nice place to be, looking at the colours,
choosing our path as we went, and walking in the fresh air all day.
 ACQUAINTED WITH THE NIGHT

Setting of the Poem

This poem is set in a sad and lonely city on a sad and lonely night. In fact, even the
streets are sad and it's also raining.
This could be any city in New England, where Frost spent most of his life, or it could
be London, where he also lived for a little while. If the poem is indeed in London,
then the clock in the sky could be an actual clock – Big Ben – and not the moon. This
would still be a pretty lonely and creepy sight. Think of a film noir movie, with
shadows everywhere and dangerous characters lurking in the dark – and then tone it
down to imagine a normal city, with normal mud and trash: the shadows are only in
our imaginations. This is the kind of night we think the speaker is describing – a
normal night turned sad and spooky by his inner ambivalence and depression.
Not sure, but we think that this poem takes place on multiple repeated nights in this
city, or many cities, because "I have been" is repeated, and could be setting up
multiple scenes. Either way, the scene is dreary and ominous. People are crying out
somewhere far away, and the watchman isn't very friendly.
This doesn't seem like a very safe or comforting place to be walking around alone at
night .