What are your thoughts on the following poem excerpt by W. B Yeats..?

Question

For Anne Gregory

'... only God, my dear,
Could love you for yourself alone
And not your yellow hair.'

Answer 1

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.'

As much as we like to "idealize" love and romance in saying that it's the "person" we love and that her/his appearance is irrelevant, that's simply not the case for almost all of us.
Romantic love is far too dependent upon superficial outward appearance because we are superficial creatures who place far too much value upon looks rather than upon character.
And our culture promotes/reflects that attitude in so many ways - through advertising, the movies, TV, etc.
And even "Ugly Betty" isn't really "ugly" at all. Take off those braces and those glasses and she's pretty hot.
Americans spend about $50 billion per year just on weight loss programs, products, diet foods and beverages, 1$0 billion on "smelling fresh", etc.
In our mind/intellect, we all know that it's character that truly matters; however, we're at the mercy of our physical bodies as well, and they demand that love/sex be primarily inspired by outward "beauty."
Even in fairy tales, the irony is overwhelming - in Beauty and the Beast, what's Beauty's "reward" for loving the ugly beast? Why, he's transformed into a "handsome prince." And while the princess may "bite the bullet" and "kiss a frog", that's only because she knows that froggy's going to become
Prince Charming.

Go figure.

Answer 2

One can take that line literally and say that it is brilliant.
I think that if the line is taken in context to life 70 yrs. later, (today),everybody will say it is current and easy to repeat in ordinary conversation.
Lets look at the author.
William Butler Yeats (IPA: /jeɪts/) (13 June 1865 – 28 January 1939) was an Irish poet, dramatist, and mystic who signed his works W. B. Yeats. Although born to an Anglo-Irish mother and father, Yeats was one of the primary driving force behind the Irish Literary Revival and was co-founder of the Abbey Theatre[1]. Yeats also served as an Irish Senator in his later years. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1923 for what the Nobel Committee described as "his always inspired poetry, which in a highly artistic form gives expression to the spirit of a whole nation".

He was brother of the artist Jack Butler Yeats and son of John Butler Yeats.

So, I think that this line started to get quoted in virtually every situation appling to any shade of weird hair styles and colors and is the source of the iconic use of this phrase as we know it today.

Answer 3

humans are weak and fall in love with superficial qualities instead of the spirit within