NCERT Questions and Answers for Class 10 English For Anne Gregory (Poem) are available here. All the solutions are prepared by expert teachers. These questions and answers help you to understand the poem easily. You can also access extra questions for For Anne Gregory to Score good marks in the exams.
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For Anne Gregory Class 10 NCERT Questions and Answers
Thinking About the Poem
Question 1. What does the young man mean by “great honey-coloued /Ramparts at your ear?” Why does he say that young men are “thrown into despair” by them?
Answer: The young man in the poem praises the great honey-coloured hair of Anne. Anne’s hair has been called rampart, meaning a wall. It is called so because they act as a wall, as they prevent young men from looking beyond those yellow hair and into her soul. Her hairs are so attractive that young men cannot look at anything else. Anne’s yellow hairs are so pretty that young men hopelessly fall in love with her. She is so pretty that everyone wants her, which cannot happen; hence, they are thrown into despair.
Question 2. What colour is the young woman’s hair? What does she say she can change it td? Why would she want to do so?
Answer: Anne’s hairs are yellow, like the colour of honey. She says that she can change it to black, brown or carrot; she means that she can change it to any colour she wants. Anne says so to show that outer beauty is changeable and not permanent or real. She wants young men to look in her soul and love her for her inner beauty. In order to do so, she needs to show them the superficiality of her external beauty.
Question 3. Objects have qualities which make them desirable to others. Can you think of some objects (a car, a phone, a dress…) and say what qualities make one object more desirable than another? Imagine you were trying to sell an object: what qualities would you emphasise?
Answer 3: The objects which make a person desirable can be dresses, shoes, ornaments, hair dyes, hairstyles, etc. But these are only outward means of beauty. The real beauty of a person is inner beauty. The beauty of mind or thoughts is the only beauty that lasts.
If I were to sell an object, I would emphasise its real qualities like its durability, usefulness, etc. rather than artificial, temporary and unreal ones.
Question 4. What about people? Do we love others because we like their qualities, whether physical or mental? Or is it possible to love someone “for themselves alone”? Are some people ‘more lovable’ than others? Discuss this question in pairs or in groups’, considering points like the following.
(i) A parent or caregiver’s love for a newborn baby, for a mentally or physically challenged child, for a clever child or a prodigy
(ii) The public’s love for a film star, a sportsperson, a politician, or a social worker
(iii) Your love for a friend, or brother or sister
(iv) Your love for a pet, and the pet’s love for you.
Answer: Generally, we love people because of their physical features as well as their mental qualities. For example, a mother loves her child whether it is beautiful or not. But some people, in spite of their physical ugliness, maybe more lovable than others because of their mental qualities. The following is to be discussed in pairs or groups:
(i) A parent’s love for a newborn baby, for a mentally or physically challenged child or for a clever child will be almost the same. However, the love of a caregiver cannot reach the same level. It would be determined by the relationship.
(ii) The public’s love for a film star, a sportsperson, a politician or a social worker depends on their emotions. If these persons work as per the wishes or aspirations of the public, they will be popular. Otherwise, they will soon be forgotten.
(iii) My love for a friend or brother or sister can’t be the same. The love for a friend is on a social or emotional scale. The love for brother or sister is purely on an emotional level. We have a love for a friend, but we have affection for a brother
or sister.
(iv) My love for a pet is because of the cuteness of a pet animal. We do not love those animals which look ugly or are bad-tempered.
Question 5. You have perhaps concluded that people are not objects to be valued for their qualities or riches rather than for themselves. But elsewhere Yeats asks the question: How can we separate the dancer from the dance? Is it possible to separate ‘the person himself or herself’ from how the person looks, sounds, walks and so on? Think of how you or a friend or member of your family has changed over the years. Has your relationship also changed? In what way?
Answer 5: It is true that a person is nothing by himself. We cannot separate him from his traits. For example, we hate a person for his negative qualities. We love a person for his good qualities. We cannot separate a person from his character. But sometimes, a person has hidden qualities.
I have seen some of my friends and family members change with the passage of time. That depends on a number of factors. Seeing that my relationship with friends has also changed, but as far as the family members are concerned, I continue to love them as before, not bothering about their changed attitude towards me.