For Anne Gregory — RBSE Class 10 English (First Flight · Poem)

A beautiful young woman wishes to be loved for who she is, not for her lovely golden hair. But can any human really see past outward beauty? W.B. Yeats turns this into a short, wise conversation and gives a humbling answer: only God can love us for ourselves alone.

1. The poem in brief — a conversation

The poem is a dialogue between the speaker (an older, wiser voice — the poet) and Anne Gregory, a lovely young woman with beautiful "honey-coloured / … yellow hair."

• The speaker tells Anne that young men, in despair, are drawn to her beautiful yellow hair — they love her for her looks, not her true self.
• Anne replies that she can change her hair colour — dye it "brown, or black, or carrot" — so that young men will be forced to love her for herself alone and not for her yellow hair.
• The speaker answers that he heard an old religious man declare he had found a "text" (in scripture) proving that only God could love her "for herself alone / And not her yellow hair."

2. Central idea

The poem explores the difference between outer (physical) beauty and inner (true) self, and asks whether anyone can love a person for their inner self alone. Its conclusion is that human love is almost always attracted by outward appearance; to love someone purely for their inner self, ignoring beauty, is possible only for God. True, selfless, unconditional love is divine, beyond ordinary human capacity.

3. Symbolism and the argument

• The "yellow hair" symbolises external/physical beauty — the surface that attracts admirers.
• Anne's wish to dye it shows her desire to be valued for her real self, not her looks.
• The old religious man's "text" (an appeal to scripture/God) delivers the poem's verdict: only the divine can love unconditionally.

So the poem gently teaches that we should ideally value the inner person, but honestly admits how strongly humans are swayed by appearance.

4. Poetic devices

• Dialogue / conversational form: the poem is a spoken exchange between two voices.
• Symbolism: yellow hair = physical beauty.
• Allusion: to religion/scripture ("an old religious man… found a text").
• Repetition: "for herself alone / and not her yellow hair" — the poem's refrain and key idea.
• Rhyme: a regular rhyme scheme across its three stanzas.
• Imagery: "great honey-coloured / Ramparts at your ear" — her hair described vividly.

5. Closing thought

"For Anne Gregory" is a small poem about a large truth. Anne's youthful wish — to be loved for herself, not her beauty — is idealistic and admirable, but Yeats gently corrects it: humans are drawn to appearance, and to love someone purely for their inner self is something only God can do. The poem does not mock Anne; it simply reveals, with warmth and a touch of sadness, how rare truly unconditional love is in the human world — and how we might still aspire to it.

For the RBSE board, remember the dialogue between the speaker and Anne, the symbolism of the "yellow hair" (physical beauty), Anne's wish to dye her hair to be loved for herself, and the conclusion (only God can love us for ourselves alone). Central-idea and symbolism questions are common.