CBSE Class 10 English First Flight For Anne Gregory Poem Summary and Notes

According to the CBSE Syllabus 2023-24, this chapter has been renumbered as Chapter 8.

Chapter 10 of CBSE Class 10 English First Flight consists of a poem – For Anne Gregory. The poem was written by William Butler Yeats, an Irish nationalist who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1923. Here, we have provided the CBSE Class 10 English Notes by explaining the meaning of the poem For Anne Gregory in detail. We have also provided a short summary of the poem to give a quick overview to students. They can refer to the English summary & notes for exam preparation and can go through it for quick revision.

Students can also practice CBSE Essays on different topics to improve their writing section for the English exam.

CBSE Class 10 English First Flight For Anne Gregory Poem Summary

This poem is in the form of a conversation that goes between the poet William Butler Yeats and a young girl named Anne Gregory. The girl had beautiful honey-coloured hair. Here, the poet has described that a person falls in love with the girl’s outer beauty and her physical appearance. No one notices the basic nature and inner beauty of the girl. In the end, he says that it is not possible to love one for oneself. Only God can love us for our inner beauty and nature.

CBSE Class 10 English First Flight For Anne Gregory Poem Summary and Explanation Notes

Students can understand the meaning of the poem by going through the explanations provided below.

For Anne Gregory Poem Explanation Notes

“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.”

BY WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS

In the first stanza, the poet says to Anne Gregory that a young man can become sad and hopeless if you reject him. The poet goes on to describe her beauty and says that she has such beautiful golden hair that anyone will fall in love with her. They fall on her ears and seem like they are protecting them in a similar way as a boundary wall protects the fort. Here, the poet has compared Anne Gregory’s hair to walls. Her hair symbolises the outer beauty that prevents anyone from looking inside her soul. Any man gets easily attracted to her and does not look into Anne’s character and real nature beyond her beauty. That’s why the poet feels that no one can love Anne for her real nature without her outward beauty. One can only love her for her golden hair and physical beauty.

In the second stanza, Anne says to the poet that she can change her hair colour. She can get her hair dyed, colour her hair brown, black or carrot colour. She means that external beauty is temporary; it can change at any time. So, the men who love her will see her actual nature behind the beauty. She hopes that the man who falls in love with her will love her for what she is and not for her yellow hair and external beauty.

In the last stanza, the poet replies to Anne after listening to her thoughts about love for internal beauty and not external. He says that he had heard an old religious man saying that only God can love us for what we are, and he can prove this by the fact mentioned in a religious book. Humans always look for external appearances and are carried away by their shine and glitter. They do not have a deep understanding to look into the soul of a person. Only God can do so and love us for our inner qualities.

We hope students have found these Summary & Notes on CBSE Class 10 English First Flight Poem For Anne Gregory helpful for their studies. They can also have a look at essay writing by going through the essay on women empowerment and essay on Republic Day. These essays will help in improving essay writing skills and make them prepare more effectively for the exam.