The Progress of Poesy: A Pindaric Ode

Venus, the classical goddess of beauty and the mother of the poem’s “rosy-crowned loves” (Line 28), is one of most important figures in “The Progress of Poesy”. Gray’s poem relies heavily on a shared body of knowledge surrounding Greek mythology. Gray would expect contemporary, educated readers to know that there are two aspects to Venus. One, named Venus Pandemos, represents earthly, material beauty, such as that which causes lust or other lower desires. The second, Venus Urania, represents a divine, spiritual beauty.

Typically, poets and artists invoke Venus Urania rather than Venus Pandemos. Gray, likewise, makes effort to clarify that poetic beauty is related to Venus Urania. The poem’s Venus “float[s] upon the air” (Line 38) and moves “In gliding state” (Line 39). This suggestion that Venus never touches the ground indicates that she is detached from worldly, material concerns. The speaker also suggests that Gray’s Venus plays the role of divine beauty through the fact that her face incites awe rather than desire in “the dauntless child” (Line 87). Still, Gray is constantly aware of Venus’s duality, stating that Venus moves both “The bloom of young desire” (Line 41) and the “purple [a color associated with nobility] light of love” (Line 41).