“For Anne Gregory” [by William Butler Yeats]

For
Anne Gregory

'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.'

— William Butler Yeats