For Anne Gregory — Class 10 English — First Flight Poetry: quick revision, 36 bites

A Conversation

The textbook tells you what kind of poem it is first.

Takeaway. Students are asked to work out what they are arguing about.

Nobody Will Love You For Yourself

His opening claim.

**No young man** will ever love her **for herself alone**, and **not her yellow hair**.

Takeaway. A compliment and a sentence, in the same breath.

‘Ramparts’

The only glossed word in the poem — and it decides everything.

Takeaway. Give the gloss first, then apply it.

Magnificent, and Impassable

Why is that the right comparison?

Takeaway. An answer needs both halves of the image.

‘Honey-Coloured’

And the other half of the phrase.

Takeaway. A colour word that is also a taste word.

‘At Your Ear’

Three easily-missed words.

They **place the hair exactly** — at the **sides of the head**, rather than falling behind.

Takeaway. A small detail holding the whole comparison up.

Why ‘Thrown Into Despair’?

Set question 1 has a second half. Answer it.

Takeaway. The despair is about failure, not about rejection.

Not Because It Is Ugly

One misreading to avoid.

The despair comes from **beauty**, not from **rejection** and certainly not from any fault.

Takeaway. Nothing in the poem blames her for anything.

Her Hair, and the Dye

Set question 2, in three parts.

Takeaway. Three parts to the question, and three to the answer.

‘Or Carrot’

Look at the third colour.

Takeaway. She is not asking to be plain. She is asking to be seen.

Quick, Practical, Not Vain

What her reply shows about her.

A **vain** woman would have been **flattered** by the first stanza and left it there.

Takeaway. The dye is a means, not an aim.

‘For Yourself Alone’

One phrase belongs to both speakers.

Takeaway. Notice the refrain and the answer gets an extra mark.

It Is Not an Answer

The first thing to notice about his reply.

Takeaway. The reply is a change of subject, and the poem knows it.

Old, Religious, and a Text

Count the authorities.

Takeaway. He has retreated behind a stranger, a religion and a book.

‘But Yesternight’

And there is a fourth detail, which is a weakness.

An old word for **last night**.

Takeaway. Funny, and revealing.

‘My Dear’

Two small words in the middle of it.

Takeaway. Tenderness and bad news together — the exact tone of the poem.

Only God

The conclusion, and it can be read three ways.

That **only God** could love her **for herself alone** and **not her yellow hair**.

Takeaway. The last idea in the poem, and the largest.

A Defeat

Reading one.

Takeaway. The problem was never the shade.

Flattery in Disguise

Reading two, and the sly one.

If **only God** can see past her beauty, then her beauty is **beyond anything human can manage**.

Takeaway. A compliment you cannot argue with.

Nobody Is Loved For Themselves Alone

Reading three, and the widest.

Takeaway. On this reading the poem has stopped being about her hair at all.

Lines 2, 4 and 6

The rhyme scheme, and it is not what students expect.

Takeaway. Eighteen lines, one rhyme sound.

‘Hair’, Three Times

And every stanza ends on the same word.

The poem is **formally unable to get away from the word** — exactly as she is unable to get away from the **thing**.

Takeaway. Say this and the answer stops being a description.

The Refrain

Count the repeated lines.

Takeaway. Neither of them can get away from the same phrase.

Claim · Solution · Escalation

The shape of the whole argument, in three words.

Takeaway. A conversation that closes rather than concludes.

What Makes an Object Desirable

Question three looks easy. Half of it is.

Takeaway. Answering that means choosing which qualities to put in front of somebody.

A Seller and a Flatterer

And there is the connection the textbook wants.

Both **name the visible quality** and **stop there**.

Takeaway. The question about phones is really a question about the poem.

Do Not Answer With an Opinion

Question four is the long one, and it has a trap.

The book supplies **four cases**. An answer using **two of them** beats an answer that only has a view.

Takeaway. Say which way each case points.

A Newborn Baby

Case one, and it is the strongest evidence in the discussion.

Takeaway. If anybody is loved for themselves alone, it is somebody with nothing else yet.

The Challenged Child and the Prodigy

And the book puts two children side by side to test it.

If love **followed ability**, the two would be loved **differently and in proportion**.

Takeaway. The comparison is the argument, not a detail in it.

The Public's Love

Case two goes the other way, and cleanly.

Takeaway. The clearest 'no' in the list.

A Friend, a Brother, a Sister

Case three is the honest middle.

Takeaway. The list is real, and it is not the whole reason.

A Pet

Case four, and it is the one nobody argues with.

A dog does not know your **marks**, your **salary** or your **appearance**.

Takeaway. If it happens anywhere it happens here — in both directions.

Rarely, and Never By Strangers

The position worth taking on question four.

People **can** be loved for themselves alone — but **almost never by strangers**.

Takeaway. A position the four cases actually support.

The Dancer and the Dance

Question five brings in a line from a different Yeats poem.

The dance exists **nowhere except in the dancer's body**. There is **no dance sitting in a corner** waiting to be performed.

Takeaway. Do not answer this one with a yes or a no.

Remove the Qualities and Nobody Is Left

Now apply it to a person.

Takeaway. This is the sentence that turns a good answer into a very good one.

W. B. Yeats

And the poet, in one line.

Takeaway. Four facts, one date.