Class 10 English · Original EZT practice
For Anne Gregory - William Butler Yeats (Class 10 English, First Flight)
For Anne Gregory is a short conversation poem by the Irish poet William Butler Yeats, printed in Class 10 First Flight (Reprint 2026-27) after The Sermon at Benares. In three six-line stanzas a young man and a young woman argue about love: he says no young man could ever love her for herself alone and not her yellow hair; she offers to dye it brown, black or carrot; he answers that only God could love her for herself alone. This page gives the full poem, a stanza-wise summary, theme, rhyme, word meanings and fresh practice questions. (Note: this is original practice, not a textbook exercise key.)
6 original worked examples, 6 fresh self-check questions and 4 mixed questions, with explained answers. These are not copied textbook exercises, an official chapter index or a full answer key. No affiliation with NCERT is claimed.
Official sources for topic and edition context, checked 24 October 2026:
1. The poem and stanza-wise summary
The poem is a conversation in three six-line stanzas with the speakers unmarked. Stanza 1 (the young man): '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.' He tells Anne that no young man, captivated by her long yellow hair, will ever love her 'for yourself alone' - her looks, he claims, will always come first. Stanza 2 (Anne): '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.' She pushes back playfully: change the colour and anyone loving her would have to love her for herself. Stanza 3 (the young man): '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.' He answers that only God could love her for herself alone - human love, he insists, always fastens on something outside the self.
2. Theme - love and appearance
Love and appearance: the poem asks whether anyone can love a person for the self alone, apart from looks and qualities. It is a playful argument with a serious centre: the teasing exchange ends on the claim that only God's love is for the self alone. Self and surface: the textbook itself pairs this with Yeats's question elsewhere - how can we separate the dancer from the dance? About the poet: William Butler Yeats (1865-1939) was an Irish nationalist, educated in London and Dublin, interested in folklore and mythology; he won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923 (First Flight author note).
3. Rhyme, form and poetic devices
Form: three six-line stanzas (sestets), a dialogue with the speakers unmarked. Rhyme: in every stanza the true rhyming line-endings sit at lines 2, 4 and 6 - stanza 1: despair / ear / hair; stanza 2: there / despair / hair; stanza 3: declare / dear / hair. Lines 1, 3 and 5 do not rhyme, so do not describe this as couplet rhyme. Metaphor: 'great honey-coloured / Ramparts at your ear' - her hair pictured as the high, wide walls of a fort defending (and advertising) her. Repetition or refrain: 'And not your yellow hair' closes all three stanzas; 'love you for yourself alone' recurs. Dialogue form: the whole poem is speech between two unnamed speakers. Allusion: 'an old religious man' with 'a text to prove' brings scripture into a teasing argument. Word meaning from the textbook gloss: ramparts - the high, wide walls around a castle or fort, for example, the ramparts of the Red Fort.
Choose, solve, check, then try a fresh question.
Before calculating, read the method prompt and name the condition that makes it useful. Write your own attempt. Open the steps only when you need them, and use the check to catch a wrong sign, unit or interpretation. Finish with the fresh question before reading its answer.
Assign each stanza its speaker
Choose the method: Dialogue without names.
EZT practice question
Who speaks each stanza?
Show the worked solution
- The poem is a dialogue with the speakers unmarked - the argument itself tells us who talks.
- Stanzas 1 and 3 press the claim that no young man can love Anne for herself alone - the young man speaks these.
- Stanza 2 pushes back with the hair-dye offer - Anne, the young woman, speaks this one.
Answer: Stanzas 1 and 3 are spoken by the young man; stanza 2 is spoken by Anne, the young woman.
Check: The offer to dye 'my yellow hair' marks stanza 2 as Anne's.
Watch for this: Do not invent names for the speakers beyond 'the young man' and Anne - the poem leaves them unmarked on purpose.
Now try it yourself
What poetic form does this speaker arrangement create?
Check your answer
A dialogue poem - the whole poem is speech between two unnamed speakers.
The argument is the action.
Unpack the ramparts image
Choose the method: Hair as fort walls.
EZT practice question
What does the young man call Anne's hair in stanza 1, and what does the image suggest?
Show the worked solution
- He calls it 'those great honey-coloured / Ramparts at your ear'.
- Ramparts are the high, wide walls around a castle or fort (the textbook gloss gives the Red Fort as an example).
- So her hair is pictured as fort walls - eye-catching and defensive - and it is what young men fall for first.
Answer: He calls her hair 'great honey-coloured / Ramparts at your ear' - her hair is like fort walls, eye-catching and defensive, and it is what young men fall for.
Check: Quote the phrase, gloss 'ramparts', then say what the walls do (attract and defend).
Watch for this: Do not call it a simile - there is no 'like' or 'as'; the hair is named as ramparts directly, a metaphor.
Now try it yourself
What colour is Anne's hair?
Check your answer
Yellow - 'honey-coloured' in the image, 'yellow hair' in the refrain.
The refrain repeats the literal colour three times.
List Anne's three colours
Choose the method: Her counter-move.
EZT practice question
What three dye colours does Anne name, and what is her argument?
Show the worked solution
- Anne offers to 'get a hair-dye / And set such colour there'.
- The three colours: 'Brown, or black, or carrot'.
- Her argument: if her hair colour changed, anyone loving her would have to love her for herself - 'May love me for myself alone / And not my yellow hair'.
Answer: Brown, black, or carrot. Her argument: if she changed her hair colour, then young men in despair would have to love her for herself alone and not her yellow hair.
Check: Three colours in the poem's order: brown, black, carrot.
Watch for this: Do not read her offer as serious defeat - it is a playful counter-move in the argument.
Now try it yourself
Which words in stanza 2 rhyme?
Check your answer
There (line 2), despair (line 4), hair (line 6).
Same 2-4-6 pattern as every stanza.
Identify the last word
Choose the method: A text to prove.
EZT practice question
Whose love, according to the old religious man's text, is for the self alone?
Show the worked solution
- The young man cites 'an old religious man' who spoke 'But yesternight'.
- The man 'had found a text to prove' his point.
- The text: 'That only God, my dear, / Could love you for yourself alone / And not your yellow hair'.
Answer: Only God's - the old religious man 'had found a text to prove / That only God, my dear, / Could love you for yourself alone / And not your yellow hair'.
Check: Answer in two words (only God), then support with the quoted text.
Watch for this: Do not attribute the claim to Yeats directly - inside the poem it is the young man quoting the old religious man.
Now try it yourself
Why does citing 'a text' matter to the argument?
Check your answer
It gives the teasing claim mock-scriptural authority - an allusion that ends the argument on a serious note.
The poem's lightness and seriousness meet in this move.
Map stanza 2's rhymes
Choose the method: Lines 2, 4, 6.
EZT practice question
Find the rhyming words in stanza 2 and name their line positions.
Show the worked solution
- Read stanza 2 line by line: hair-dye / there / carrot / despair / alone / hair.
- The rhyming endings: there (line 2), despair (line 4), hair (line 6).
- Lines 1, 3 and 5 (hair-dye, carrot, alone) do not rhyme - the pattern is rhymes at lines 2, 4 and 6, not couplets.
Answer: There - line 2, despair - line 4, hair - line 6. Lines 1, 3 and 5 are unrhymed.
Check: Give the words with their line numbers - positions are half the answer.
Watch for this: Do not describe the poem as couplet rhyme (AABB) - adjacent lines do not rhyme here.
Now try it yourself
Is the 2-4-6 pattern kept in stanza 3?
Check your answer
Yes - declare (line 2), dear (line 4), hair (line 6).
The same skeleton carries all three stanzas.
State the rhyme scheme precisely
Choose the method: Never couplets.
EZT practice question
What is the rhyme scheme of For Anne Gregory?
Show the worked solution
- Each stanza has six lines (a sestet).
- In every stanza the true rhyming line-endings sit at lines 2, 4 and 6 - stanza 1: despair / ear / hair; stanza 2: there / despair / hair; stanza 3: declare / dear / hair.
- Lines 1, 3 and 5 do not rhyme - so never describe this as couplet rhyme.
Answer: Each six-line stanza rhymes at lines 2, 4 and 6 (despair/ear/hair in stanza 1); lines 1, 3 and 5 are unrhymed - it is not couplet rhyme.
Check: Name the positions first (2, 4, 6), then give one stanza's example.
Watch for this: Do not force letters like AABB onto it - saying 'lines 2, 4 and 6 rhyme' is the precise, exam-safe form.
Now try it yourself
Which line closes all three stanzas?
Check your answer
'And not your yellow hair' - the refrain at line 6 of each stanza.
The refrain is also the third rhyme in every stanza.
Try a mixed set
Choose a method or explanation before opening each answer.
1. Speakers of stanzas 1, 2, 3?
Show answer and reason
Young man, Anne, young man.
The hair-dye offer marks Anne's stanza.
2. The hair is called?
Show answer and reason
'Great honey-coloured / Ramparts at your ear'.
Fort-wall metaphor - attractive and defensive.
3. Anne's three dye colours?
Show answer and reason
Brown, or black, or carrot.
Her playful counter-argument.
4. Rhyming line positions?
Show answer and reason
Lines 2, 4 and 6 in every stanza; 1, 3 and 5 unrhymed.
Not couplets - the exam trap.
Try it yourself
Work these on paper before checking any notes. Answers are deliberately not shown here.
- Explain in two sentences why 'ramparts' is an exact metaphor for Anne's hair.
- Mark the rhyming words and line positions of stanza 3 as you would in an exam.
- Say how the poem stays playful even while ending on 'only God'.
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Questions about this practice page
- What is the rhyme scheme of For Anne Gregory?
- Each six-line stanza rhymes at lines 2, 4 and 6 (despair/ear/hair in stanza 1); lines 1, 3 and 5 are unrhymed.
- Which chapter number is For Anne Gregory in Class 10 First Flight?
- In the Reprint 2026-27 printing, poems sit between the numbered prose chapters and are not numbered as chapters themselves; this poem is printed after The Sermon at Benares. Follow your own textbook's contents page.
- What is the central idea of For Anne Gregory?
- Whether anyone can love a person for the self alone rather than for looks - the poem answers, half-playfully, that only God can.
- Who wrote For Anne Gregory?
- William Butler Yeats (1865-1939), Irish poet and nationalist, Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923.
- What poetic devices are used in For Anne Gregory?
- Metaphor ('great honey-coloured / Ramparts at your ear'), refrain ('And not your yellow hair'), dialogue form between two unnamed speakers, and allusion ('an old religious man' with 'a text to prove').