I Couldn't Read Poetry

I think got one B in middle school.  Seventh grade language arts with Ms. Regent.  I had a high A in that class at first, diagramming the heck out of my sentences, having the most clear understanding of my subject and predicate and prepositional phrases...  Then at the end of the semester there was a huge test on poetry, and I got a 55 on it.  I still remember getting that test back and gaping in horror at this unheard-of test score.  I also remember agonizing over the poem that made absolutely no sense to me and caused me to leave the entire interpretation blank:

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.

After two years in the U.S. my English was still just not good enough.  I could do homework but could not tell jokes.  I could dissect any sentence but could not fathom why green was gold, hue was being held, and dawn was going down.

"What happened?" asked Ms. Regent in her unforgettably shaky voice.  I said, "I just did not understand the poem at all."  When we went over the test, I was surprised at how everyone else had understood the poem fine.

It's a good poem.  Pessimistic, but good...