Question # 2: Connotation, Denotation, and Theme Instructions: Read the following poem and answer the questions below:

Nothing Gold Can Stay
by Robert Frost

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.

1. What do the words: gold, hour, flower, and Eden connote in this poem?
2. How do the connotations of these words help you understand the poem’s theme?
3. Write an original paragraph in which those words (gold, hour, flower, and Eden) connote a significantly different meaning than the one in this poem. Explain what they connote in your paragraph, and how that is different than what they connote in the Robert Frost poem.