Meanings
- Nothing good lasts forever.
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.
1923 October 29, Robert Lee Frost, “Nothing Gold Can Stay”, in The Yale ReviewSynonyms: all good things come to an end
Synonyms & antonyms
proverbNothing good lasts forever.
Origin
Coined by American poet Robert Frost in 1923 in his short poem “Nothing Gold Can Stay,” the theme of which is change and ephemerality.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
nothing gold can stay. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 5, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nothing%20gold%20can%20stay
“nothing gold can stay.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nothing%20gold%20can%20stay. Accessed November 5, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “nothing gold can stay,” accessed November 5, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/nothing%20gold%20can%20stay.
Source: nothing gold can stay on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.