Robert Frost was an American poet known for his vivid images of nature and agricultural life in his works. He was considered one of the most influential and popular American poets of the twentieth century. He has received various awards such as the Congressional Gold Medal and the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry, which he has won four times. Many critics over the years have analyzed Frost's poetry, all eager to dive into the thicket of complexity that is Robert Frost. Frost was known for writing poetry with an emphasis on nature. He used the changing of the seasons to symbolize events that also occurred in the lives of the characters portrayed in his poems and to provide a vivid depiction of the human condition. For example, in "Nothing Gold Can Stay", Frost opens the poem with a line about the shadow of leaves, but by the end of the poem it becomes apparent that the gold he is describing has little to do with nature, but rather it is a representation of the things valued in life and their fragility. Mordecai Marcus stated in his book The Poems of Robert Frost: An Explanation: "Frost's view resembles Emerson's idea that to be born into this world is the fall, implying that the suffering and decay brought by natural processes are what we know of evil... The "Nothing" of the last line, repeated by the title, receives special emphasis; the gold that cannot remain comes to represent all perfections" (Marcus) Using nature as a means of symbolizing the cycle of human existence was a common thread in a large number of Frost's poems. Frost was also praised for the depth of meaning behind his poetry yet the simplistic and tone-deaf language in which he wrote it. Randall Jarrell noted the rawness of Frost's poetry in......middle of paper...literary world. Frost explores many themes through an organic depiction of human responses to life. As critics have discovered, there is much more complexity to Robert Frost's work than the language in which he writes it. Works Cited Jarrell, Randall. "The other frost." Poetry and age. New York: Vintage Books, 1953.Marcus, Mordecai. "Nothing that gold can stay" On the web "Nothing that gold can stay". March 12, 2014.Marson, Janyce. “Critical Contexts: Robert Frost: A Look at Critical Reception.” Critical insights: Robert Frost (2010): 40-60. Literary reference center. Network. March 12, 2014.Valassis, Anastasia Vahaviolos. “Critical Contexts: The Paradoxes of Robert Frost: An Edit on “Discordant Elements..” Critical Insights: Robert Frost (2010): 76-91. Literary Reference Center. Web. March 12. 2014.