Summary of the Poem For Anne Gregory
Summary of the poem For Anne Gregory is love poetry by William Butler Yeats, which signifies the whole idea of modern love. The poem is a kind of conversation between a lovely lady, Anne Gregory, and someone, who may be the poet or any known person. Anne is so beautiful that anyone can be attracted to her just at a glance. She is a feast to behold, and her beauty is a thing to harness. She has beautiful skin texture, and her hair is yellow coloured and so attractive. Her external beauty can make anyone mad in her love.
So, the person who is speaking or is the speaker of the poem tells Anne that whosoever will love her, he will love her for her beautiful yellow hair and her external beauty. This shows the modern-day love, that today if we fall in love with anyone, we are attracted by his or her external beauty. We want our partner to be beautiful and look amazing. Even if a person is rude or arrogant but still, if he/she is beautiful, he/she will easily get love. This shows how we humans ignore the internal qualities in front of beauty.
Summary and Theme of the Poem For Anne Gregory
Anne Gregory Poem Summary highlights that beauty is just a temporary thing. Even today, when beauty can be artificially created by using makeup products and all, still, beauty is a way to judge people. Is it necessary that if a person is beautiful by looks would also be beautiful by heart? Are all the ugly people on this Earth bad? No matter what, beauty has been made a measure of good human beings. Such a mindset is so toxic, but it's widespread today.
To this, Anny replies that she doesn't want someone to love her for her external beauty. She wants to attract anyone by her inner beauty, her heart. This shows how a beautiful girl wants someone to love her based on her inner feelings and her soul instead of her lovely yellow hair or her body. The statement itself shows how beautiful she is from inside. Outer beauty is just an illusion, and Anny understands this fact from her heart. She even says that she will change the colour of her hair so that she could find someone who will love her the way she wants to be loved. She wants real love. She doesn't want people to love her beauty, and she wants them to love her for the real her, for her feelings, her emotions, her outlook on different situations and her soft nature.
To this, the poet says that no human can love her for her heart because a religious person has once told him that he found a book in which it is written that only God can love a human for his or her inner self. Thus, in this world, there is not even a single human who can love her for her internal feelings. God is only such a supreme creature who will not take external beauty as a measure of love. God will only love her selflessly and endlessly.
This is a sad thought that no human can love us for what we are on the inside; they just want us to look beautiful if we want to be loved. At the same time, it shows that God is such a pure soul and supreme one who doesn't care if you are dark or fair, long or short, fat or thin and beautiful or ugly. If you are good from inside, you will be loved, and if you aren't, you would not be loved.
Conclusion
God is the supreme being who loves a person for his real beauty, that is his inner beauty, regardless of his external beauty or his body. Humans want to be loved in this manner, but in today's world, people value superficial qualities and looks more than internal attributes. One who loves the soul can capture the heart and can only selflessly love others. Summary of the poem For Anne Gregory is not just a lesson to Anne Gregory but a lesson to all the people that you can't find anyone, other than God who will love you for who you are. There would be a lot of people who will desire you for your external beauty, but only God is the one who admires your inner beauty.
FAQs on For Anne Gregory Summary: A Poem by W.B. Yeats
Q1. What does the Poet mean by True Love in the Poem “For Anne Gregory”?
Ans: By True Love, the poet refers to the idea of loving someone beyond their external look and beauty. In today’s world, people choose to love a person who is beautiful from the outside without knowing his/her qualities or desires. This kind of love cannot be true love. True love is that love in which a person accepts you with your flaws and internal beauty. True love doesn’t seek the external beauty of a person but accepts the person the way he/she is and the poet is talking about this kind of true love in the poem For Anne Gregory.
Q2. What is the Central Theme of the Poem “For Anne Gregory”?
Ans: The poem “For Anne Gregory” focuses on the idea of true love. Anne Gregory is a beautiful girl and everyone loves her for her beauty. However, Anne Gregory doesn’t want this kind of love for herself. She wants someone who loves her for her internal qualities and not because of her hair colour or her external looks. According to her, this kind of true love is hard to find in today’s world as everybody gets attracted to external looks and doesn't care about the person’s qualities. She thinks that only God loves us the way we are and only God’s love is true love in this selfish world.