ENGLISH POETRY

TIKA FITRIA DAMAYANTI

ABSTRACT

ABSTRACT

Paper ini ditulis oleh penulis untuk menganalisis puisi Robert Frost yang berjudul

Nothing Gold Can Stay. Tujuan penulisan paper ini adalah untuk memahami isi

puisi. Teori yang digunakan adalah cara membaca intensif. Adapun hasil

pemahaman penulis yaitu berupa unsur intrinsik dan unsur ekstrinsik. Unsur

intrinsik meliputi denotasi dan konotasi, serta majas. Unsur ekstrinsik yang

penulis temukan yaitu makna dari roda kehidupan. Kesimpulan yang dapat

diambil adalah penulis berusaha untuk memahami makna dari puisi Nothing Gold

Can Stay menggunakan unsur intrinsik dan unsur ekstrinsik.

Kata kunci: cycle of life, symbol, methapor,paradox

Background of the Study

Poetry is not just a horde of some words, but it is a beautiful piece of author’s feeling and heart, an art to express a thousand of emotions, a way to say more

than it seems, and a thing that can move your heart.

“Poetry might be defined as a kind of languages that says more and says it more intensely than does ordinary language. In order to understand this fully, we need to understand what poetry says. For language is employed o different occasions to say quite different kinds of things; in other words, language has different uses.” (Perrine, Sound and Sense, 1988:3)

Analyzing a poem is an activity where we try to understanding a poem better and deeper of its meaning with a techniques which use theory to analyze it. We

need to feel it with our heart to grasp the real meaning of the poem and the authors use the Robert Frost’s Nothing Gold Can Stay to be analyzed.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose on this study is:

To appreciate Robert Frost’s poem, Nothing Gold Can Stay.

To analyze the using of denotation and connotation in the poem.

To analyze the using of figurative language in the poem

To find out the meaning of the poem about the cycle of life

Scope of The Study

The scope of this study is to identifying the using of denotation and connotation, the figurative language in the poem and meaning the

Biography of the Poet

Robert Frost was born in San Francisco, California, to journalist William Prescott Frost, Jr., and Isabelle Moodie. His mother was of Scottish descent, and his

father descended from Nicholas Frost of Tiverton, Devon, England, who had sailed to New Hampshire in 1634 on the Wolfrana.

Frost's father was a teacher and later an editor of the San Francisco Evening. After his death on May 5, 1885, the family moved to Lawrence, Massachusetts,

under the patronage of (Robert's grandfather) William Frost, Sr., Frost graduated from Lawrence High School in 1892. Frost's mother joined the Swedenborgian

church and had him baptized in it, but he left it as an adult.

Frost grew up in the city, and he published his first poem in his high school's magazine. He attended Dartmouth College for two months, long enough to be

accepted into the Theta Delta Chi fraternity. Frost returned home to teach and to work at various jobs. He did not enjoy these jobs, feeling his true calling was poetry.

In 1894 he sold his first poem, "My Butterfly. An Elegy" (published in the November 8, 1894, edition of the New York Independent) for $15 ($398 today).

Proud of his accomplishment, he proposed marriage to Elinor Miriam White, but she demurred. Having graduated, she agreed, and they were married at Lawrence,

Massachusetts on December 19, 1895.

Frost attended Harvard University from 1897 to 1899, but he left voluntarily due to illness. Shortly before dying, Robert's grandfather purchased a farm for

Robert and Elinor in Derry, New Hampshire; and Robert worked the farm for nine years, while writing early in the mornings and producing many of the poems that

would later become famous.

In 1912 Frost sailed with his family to Great Britain, settling first in Beaconsfield, a small town outside London. His first book of poetry, A Boy's Will, was

published the next year. Frost met or befriended many contemporary poets in England, especially after his first two poetry volumes were published in London in

1913 (A Boy's Will) and 1914 (North of Boston).

THE POEM AND TRANSLATION

The Poem

Nothing Gold Can Stay

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 today.

Nothing gold can stay.

II.3 Translation of The Poem

Tak Ada Emas Yang Abadi

Hijau pertama alam adalah emas,

Hal yang paling sulit untuk dipertahankan.

Daun pertamanya adalah bunga;

Namun, itu hanya sesaat.

Kemudian, daun berganti daun.

Sehingga, Eden tenggelam dalam kesedihan,

Lalu fajar menjelma ke hari.

Tak ada emas yang abadi.

Denotation and Connotation

Nature’s first green is gold. (stanza 1, line 1)

In this line, the word ‘nature’ has a real meaning as a place where we live on or everything on earth and space. At the same time, this word

also indicate another meaning(connotation) as a life of a human. Frost wants to express the similarity between the nature and a life of human being

in a lot of aspects. The word ‘gold’ here, beside has a meaning as a yellowish jewelry that usually expensive, it also has a meaning as something

really important, that not everyone can have it because it is hard to get.

Her early leaf’s a flower. (stanza 1, line 3)

Leaf and flower is a part of plant, but Frost make a special meaning to these as leaf is the first green or something that comes first in a cycle of life. A

flower is a part of plant that has corona as a crown, the connotation of this word is that flower is actually a beautiful thing in life.

Figurative Language

IV.1.2.1 Symbol

Nothing gold can stay (title)

The title itself tell us everything what is the topic that Frost wants to deliver to us. The title says everything, that nothing ‘gold’ can stay. The word ‘gold’ here deliver meaning as

something special, meaningful, precious such as a beauty, wealthy, and so it could be human nature or a new soul in a lifetime. Something precious would not be around for so long,

this is what Frost wants to imply with this title that says everything. The word ‘gold’ also symbolize something that is hard to get because it is expensive, just like a new born baby

that need effort to get it.

Nature’s first green is gold,

Her hardest hue to hold (stanza 1, line 1-2)

The writer uses the word nature to symbolize the circle of human lifetime. Nature itself has different season every year, and so human’s life that have ups and downs like the

different season of nature. The world “first green” is symbolizing the first circle of human lifetime. It can be seen as the birth of the human and in the nature likes when plant sprouts

its first leaf. When the plant first sprout its leaf, it marks the beginning of the plant’s life, thus it becomes the precious moment when the life begin like the birth of the human that

became the precious moment of the human like which is symbolizing by the word “gold”.

The second line implied that the precious thing is something that not easy to maintain. We must tried our hardest to keep it because maintaining what we have is more difficult than

when we achieve it.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour. (stanza 1, line 3-4)

Frost uses word ‘early leaf’ to symbolize the very first ability like when first time the baby can smile or move her finger, it becomes the pride for her parents. Every purity

that is shown by her, becomes her parents happiness. It is like flower bud that is blooming to a beautiful flower and flower in here symbolize as the beauty of the progress of the

baby. The bloom of the flowers would not last forever, the flowers will wilted and die. The word ‘an hour’ is not symbolize the real hour but symbolize a really short time that

human have.

Metaphor

Nature’s first green is gold. (stanza 1, line 1)

In this line, Frost compare the value of nature’s first green as valuable as a gold. The using of word ‘gold’ is absolutely clever because gold is considered as

the most precious wealth. The first green of nature which is expressing a beginning of life and the most waited, beautiful and precious moment in human

mankind perfectly presented by Frost by comparing between nature’s first green with gold.

Her early leaf’s a flower;

But only so an hour. (stanza 1, line 3-4)

Again Frost makes comparison to deliver the poem nicely. This metaphor compares ‘her early leaf’ with ‘flower’. Every early steps in lifetime cycle, like a

baby who can laugh for the first time, is a beautiful gift as beautiful as a flower. Frost using the word flower as comparison because flower is an perfect

epitome of beauty. Frost also compares the time we life in this world with an hour. It means that we life in this world not for forever but as short as an hour.

IV.1.2.3 Paradox

Nature’s first green is gold, (stanza 1, line 1)

This line includes a paradox in it. We know that green is not the same color as a gold but somehow this line is right because the word ‘first green’

here is a first cycle of human lifetime. The first cycle of human lifetime is so precious and symbolized by gold, that is why eventhough the word ‘green’ and

‘gold’ are opposite, but they have a meaning behind that.

Her early leaf’s a flower; (stanza 1, line 3)

Another paradox found in this poem is between ‘flower’ and ‘leaf’. Flower and leaf are different part of plant. They also have different function and

look, but in this poem, early leaf that symbolize very first a human ability whatever it is is so beautiful like a blooming flower. They have opposite meaning

in real context but in this poem they are the same things.

IV. 2. Extrinsict Element

Cycle of Life

In this poems said about cycle of life. We alwys hope that we can life hapilly everyday, healthy and being rich. But not all that things can

happened exactly as we want. Of course, because we have God that arrange the best needs and best things for us. I think this is connected with Frost’

believeness in God. We can easy to understand with this explanation.

The title and last line are general enough that we can think of this poem metaphorically. We can figure out Muhammad Ali looking at his

gold medals in 2050 and missing the athleticism that faded into old age. Or an old movie star, looking in the mirror at her wrinkled face, missing the

golden days of youth. We can see a teenager, packing up her bags to go to college, worried about student loans and whether or not she's going to

make it academically, missing the days when she was a little kid, when mom and dad took care of everything. So gold the metal can actually stay

gold for a while, but the golden things in life as poet said that gold life is always seem to fade away.

CONCLUSION

Robert Frost’s “Nothing Gold Can Stay” is one of a poem that told a lesson about life in beautiful and interesting way, telling us that something

beautiful or precious would not stay forever. From the analysis we can conclude that Frost is talking about human’s life cycle, from we were born as

a pure baby and grow up with having different nature, it can be bad or good. The hardest thing is maintain the purity as the beauty of our life. Human

also life in this world not for forever, soon we will meet the time to go. In this poem tell us to appreciate and maintain the purity and the beautiful of

good nature, so we can back to Eden after our end.

In this poem, there are denotation and connotation also figurative language. The using of denotation and connotation in this poem make it

simple yet deep. Then, in figurative language, there are symbol, metaphor and paradox aspect. These elements make the poem has a deep meaning

and interesting to read.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Chatman, Seymour. 1968. An Introduction to The Laguage of Poetry. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Perrine, Laurence. 1988. Literature, Structure, Sound and Sense. Florida: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich

Oxford. 2006. Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary 7th Edition. Oxford.

http://www.ehow.com/info_10073998_types-imagery-poems.html

http://www.agdc.ac.in/pdf/resources/frost.pdf