How many of you have read S.E. Hinton’s classic The Outsiders? If you haven’t, you must. You won’t be sorry; ask anyone who has. During the course of this tense and powerful novel about a group of boys in an unnamed town in Oklahoma, the main character Ponyboy Curtis and one of his best friends Johnny are hiding out from the law. Johnny has an opportunity to recite the Robert Frost poem, “Nothing Gold Can Stay.” It is an example of the perfect words in the perfect order at the perfect time.
Nothing Gold Can Stay
Nature’s first green is gold;
Its hardest hue to hold.
Its early leaf’s a flower,
But only for an hour.
Then leaf subsides to leaf,
So Eden sank to grief,
So dawn goes down to day.
Nothing gold can stay.