Splendor in the Grass - Definition and Overview

Splendor in the Grass is a 1961 film which tells the story of a girl in a small town in Kansas in 1928 who expresses her moral principles by refusing to give in to her boyfriend's demands for sex. He selfishly turns to another for gratification and she is driven to despair. It stars Natalie Wood, Pat Hingle and Warren Beatty.

The movie was written by William Inge and directed by Elia Kazan.

It won the Academy Award for Best Writing, Story and Screenplay - Written Directly for the Screen, and was nominated for Best Actress in a Leading Role (Natalie Wood).

The title comes from a line in the poem Ode on Intimations Of Immortality From Recollections of Early Childhood by William Wordsworth:

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendour in the grass, of glory in the flower;

We will grieve not, rather find

Strength in what remains behind