For Anne Gregory
For Anne Gregory - meaning Summary
Appearance Versus True Love
The poem presents three short speakers who address whether anyone can love a woman for herself rather than her golden hair. A young man is cynical, the woman proposes a cosmetic fix, and a religious elder concludes only God could do so. The sequence uses wry irony to question the possibility of selfless human love and to contrast worldly appearance, self-presentation, and spiritual absolutes.
Read Complete Analyses'Never shall a young man, Thrown into despair By those great honey-coloured Ramparts at your ear, Love you for yourself alone And not your yellow hair.' 'But I can get a hair-dye And set such colour there, Brown, or black, or carrot, That young men in despair May love me for myself alone And not my yellow hair.' 'I heard an old religious man But yesternight declare That he had found a text to prove That only God, my dear, Could love you for yourself alone And not your yellow hair.'
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