Short Questions and Answers
Question 1 : Between Whom does the conversation in the poem take place?
Answer : The poem is a conversation between Anne and the another speaker,who could be the poet himself,or Anne’s lover or friend.The other speaker believes that young men love Anne for her external beauty but Anne says that external beauty is not real and young men should love her for herself.
Question 2 : What does the poet mean by,”those great honey-coloured ramparts at your ear”?
Answer : Ramparts here refer to locks of Anne’s beautiful yellow hair and external beauty that hides her soul and true nature and lets other people see only her outer self.The women’s honey-coloured hair attract many young men.
Question 3 : Why do young men love Anne for her hair and not for herself alone?
Answer : Anne Gregory is so beautiful that no man is capable of ignoring her external beauty and looking inside her real nature.Her attractive external features stop men from knowing the real person.This is what that makes the speaker say that young men love Anne for her hair and not for herself alone.
Long Questions and Answers
Question 1 : The poet in the poem ‘For Anne Gregory’ conveys that we should give importance to the inner beauty and not the physical appearance. Elaborate with reference to the poem.
Answer : In the conversation that takes place between Anne Gregory and another speaker, the poet has tried to show that inner beauty is real beauty whereas physical appearance is changeable and hence, unimportant. The first speaker says to Anne that young men love her for her beautiful yellow hair and may never love her for what she really is. To this, Anne replies that her hair-colour can be changed into black, brown or carrot, meaning that external beauty is all superficial and men should not love her for that. Through Anne’s reply, the poet has made clear his preference for internal beauty over physical appearance.
Question 2 : God does not love a person for his/her outer appearance but for the person himself. Elaborate.
Answer : God does not love any person for his/her out appearance and riches. Human beings pay attention to material things. To prove this, the pot/speaker mentioned about a text found by an old religious man that proves that only God can love a person for himself/herself. We should not expect the same from human beings. Human beings prefer to see only outward beauty. The speaker tells that only God can be so great as to avoid external beauty and look beyond it. Man, on the other hand, falls for the things that appear pretty from outside and never bothers about what lies inside. The poet wants to say that it is a truth since time immemorial that men can not easily judge women on anything other than their looks.