English

Chapman

22 July, 19:15

The first line of the poem contains the phrase "green is gold," which has the structure of a metaphor. This metaphor links two different colors. What is the symbolic meaning of the colors green and gold? What does this metaphor say?

The Poem:

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.