"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..."

Ponyboy Curtis loved Robert Frost with his life, reciting the poem with a dreamy look in his eyes as he leans against a fence railing outside the abandoned church you, Johnny, and Pony ran to after Johnny's murder of Bob Sheldon. The sunset was awe-inspiring, breathtaking. You three always loved sunsets. Well, Johnny tagged along. He never quite noticed them, but you and Ponyboy always snuck out together the most going to look at them. You'd talk about your secrets and how you want to leave greasers and socs and Tulsa behind and run away with Johnny.

You can Ponyboy were always close friends, closer than any other people in the gang. Closer than Johnny and Dallas, even (which was hard to beat).

Johnny stared at Ponyboy. "Where'd you learn that? That was what I meant."

"Robert Frost wrote it. He meant more to it than I'm gettin', though." Ponyboy paused for a good while, thinking deeply. "I always remembered it because I never quite got what he meant by it."