In Robert Frost's "Nothing Gold Can Say," he describes alludes to a myth: the myth of the Garden of Eden. He's talking about the myth of The Garden of Eden and the effect Adam and Eve's sin had on it. He uses this reference because what happened in The Garden of Eden is one of the earliest and well-known instances of sin in history. It sounds like Frost believes this myth, because he talks as though it is a fact. However, if line 6 were to be left out, it would be much harder to distinguish what "myth" Frost is referring to, if he is referring to a myth at all. Without this line the poem loses its biblical meaning, and the readers have absolutely no idea what Frost is referring to.
In his poem, Frost says that 'Nature's first green is gold." While he is describing how leaves are first yellow before they turn green, he is also implying something else by this line: before anything matures, it is in its most innocent and golden state. Just like the leaves are golden before they bloom, Adam and Eve were innocent and sinless in the eyes of the LORD before they were deceived. Their innocence was taken from them by these acts. He also says that the "early leaf's a flower; but only so an hour", meaning that this sinless state surely cannot be held for a long period of time, because with time everyone sins. Once a leaf turns green, with time it will surely die. The same goes with Adam and Eve: once they were set on the path of sinning, they were on their way to their death. .
The overall theme of this poem is that gold is the "hardest hue to hold." In other words, innocence is the hardest thing to keep, because it can so easily be taunted by sin. While this poem may be short, Robert Frost packs a lot of words into this short poem. Frost gives his apprehension of what sin is like and makes reference to the Garden of Eden to show just how power sin can have over anyone, even the most holy.
