Classic and Contemporary Poetry: Explained

Linda Gregg’s poem "It Is the Rising I Love" is a meditation on aspiration, struggle, and the beauty of striving. Gregg juxtaposes her own poetic and spiritual struggle with the mythological image of Venus rising from the sea, exploring themes of transcendence, failure, and the human condition.

The poem opens with a candid admission of struggle: "As long as I struggle to float above the ground / and fail, there is reason for this poetry." This line sets the tone for the entire poem, framing the act of writing poetry as a response to, and a reflection of, personal struggle and the desire for transcendence. The poet’s acknowledgment of failure is not a resignation but a motivation, suggesting that the act of striving itself is what gives poetry its purpose.

Gregg invokes the image of Venus, the Roman goddess of love, emerging from the sea. This reference to the Ludovisi Throne, an ancient Roman relief, symbolizes beauty, birth, and the transition from one state to another. Venus’s rise from water to land, aided by women who cover her nakedness, becomes a powerful metaphor for the poet’s own longing to rise from the earthly to the ethereal, from the physical to the spiritual. The imagery of Venus being covered as she rises also speaks to the tension between exposure and protection, vulnerability and dignity.

"It is the rising I love, from no matter what element / to the one above," Gregg writes, expressing a deep admiration for the act of transcending one’s current state. Whether it is Venus moving from water to land or the poet’s attempt to ascend from earth to air, the act of rising represents a movement towards something higher, something beyond the mundane. This aspiration is not merely physical but profoundly spiritual, as indicated by the poet’s yearning to rise "as if I had a soul."

Gregg contrasts her own experience with Venus's mythic ascent. While Venus is aided by women, the poet is "Helped by prayers and not by women." This distinction highlights the poet's reliance on spiritual assistance rather than physical aid, underscoring a solitary and introspective journey. The poet's ascension is envisioned in terms of "sexual glamour," merging the sensual with the spiritual, a testament to the complex interplay between physical desire and transcendence.

The imagery of the poet rising "like a flame, / like the sun, moon, stars, birds, wind" evokes a sense of universal connectivity and the natural cycle of rise and fall. These celestial and natural elements represent purity, light, and freedom, which the poet aspires to embody. However, this aspiration is tempered by the reality of human existence, marked by the "terrible blind grinding / of gears against our bodies and lives."

Gregg grounds her lofty aspirations in the physical world, kneeling to smell crocuses in April. This act of humility and connection to the earth underscores the poem's central tension between the desire to transcend and the necessity to live within the limits of the human condition. The crocuses, symbols of spring and renewal, remind the poet—and the reader—of the cyclical nature of life, the perpetual interplay between aspiration and reality.

In "It Is the Rising I Love," Linda Gregg eloquently captures the essence of human striving. The poem is a poignant reflection on the beauty of aspiration, the inevitability of failure, and the profound significance of the struggle itself. Through rich imagery and mythological allusion, Gregg explores the complex dynamics of desire, spirituality, and the human condition, ultimately finding meaning and poetry in the continuous effort to rise.

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