Centuries apart, Robert Herrick and Robert Frost wrote poems illustrating the brevity of life. “To virgins, to save time”; by Herrick and “Nothing Gold Can Stay”; by Frost are both poems that address the limited time that humanity, especially the time of youth, must spend in this life. Both authors use nature to symbolize the brevity of life and the time spent in youth. A symbol of nature used in both poems is a flower. In full bloom, a flower is in its most beautiful and prolific state. In youth, man is in the same state of a flower in bloom, resplendent and generous, but the time of the beauty of a flower and of youth is short. Herrrick states in lines 3 and 4 "And this same flower that smiles today, / Tomorrow will die" (728), which is a symbol of the brevity of youth. Frost in lines 3-4 “Its first leaf is a flower;/But only an hour”; (989) also symbolizes the fleeting time of youth. At first, a flower and a young one are filled with vitality, but in a short time the flower will wither and die, and the young one will become an adult on its way to death. The second symbol used by Herrick and Frost is day: youth is dawn, adulthood is noon, and death is sunset. From the day a man is born, he dies. In the second stanza, Herrick illustrates the brevity of a day; the higher the sun rises in the sky, the closer it gets to setting. In line 7, “Then the dawn descends to the day”; (990) Frost also addresses the limited time man has in life. Frost's choice of the word "down" to describe the action of the sun helps make the symbol of day clearer, illustrating the brevity of a day. Usually we think of the sun rising during the day and not setting until after noon..