The Full Text of “Diving into the Wreck”
The Full Text of “Diving into the Wreck”
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“Diving into the Wreck” Introduction
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"Diving into the Wreck" was written by the American poet Adrienne Rich and first published in a collection of the same name in 1973. The poem opens as the speaker prepares for a deep-sea dive and then follows the speaker's exploration of a shipwreck. Rich was a leading feminist poet, and many critical interpretations view the poem as an extended metaphor relating to the struggle for women's rights and liberation. That said, the poem is rich with symbolism related to a variety of subjects, and its reading doesn't need to be limited by Rich's biography. For example, it can also be taken as a more general exploration of personal identity and people's relationship to the past. To that end, before diving the speaker has "read the book of myths"—which perhaps represents the established ideas, norms, and stories about the wreck (and, metaphorically speaking, about the speaker and/or society at large)—and insists on instead gaining direct experience of the wreck by making the dive. The poem thus also becomes a kind of call for venturing into the perilous unknown in order to find the truth.
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“Diving into the Wreck” Summary
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Before putting on my diving equipment, I read the book of stories about the wreck. I got my camera ready and made sure my knife was sharp. Then I put on my black rubber diving suit, flippers, and the cumbersome mask. I am alone—the complete opposite of Jacques Cousteau, the famous diver who always had a big team around on his boat.
There is ladder leading down to the water, hanging off the side of the boat innocently enough. Those of us who have used the ladder know what it's for, but some just ignore it completely—as though it were some kind of rubbish floating on the water.
I start my descent down the ladder. Even after going down many rungs, I am still surrounded by daylight and the clear air of the world above the surface. My flippers make going down the ladder awkward, and I feel like a bug as I continue to descend. No one is around to tell me when I will make contact with the water.
The air around me changes from shades of blue, to green, and then black. I think for a moment that I'm going to pass out, but my oxygen mask is strong and it fills my blood with its strength. The sea is a kind of story in itself, though, and uncovering its truths has nothing to do with strength. I have to teach myself to move gently under the water.
I have to remind myself why I'm down here. It's easy to get distracted, looking all the creatures swimming around between the reefs. This underwater world moves at a totally different pace.
I'm here to explore the shipwreck. Words have helped show me the way, giving me directions and a sense of purpose. I came to bear witness to both the wreck's damage and to the treasures it still holds. I shine my flashlight on the side of the ship, which will outlive the fish and weeds that surround it.
I came to see the wreck first-hand; I won't be satisfied with the old stories or myths about it. I see a drowned face staring up towards the surface of the water. I look at the damage done to the wreck by the salt and currents, which has given it a strange kind of beauty. I see the beams of sunken ship's frame, which curve upward like a rib cage and defend the wreck from the hesitant creatures that haunt it.
Down here, I become both mermaid and merman—with dark flowing hair and a strong shell. We move around the ship in silence, and then dive inside. I am both the male and female figure whose drowned face stares towards the surface, whose breasts still feel the pressure of the water, whose abandoned treasures lie half-hidden in barrels and left to decay. We are the defunct tools of navigation that once showed the way, the soggy logbook and the ruined compass.
We, I, you—all of us have, whether through shame or bravery, made it back to this place. And we all carry a knife, camera, and the book of myths—which doesn't mention us at all.
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“Diving into the Wreck” Themes
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Women's Oppression and Erasure
The poem can be read as an extended metaphor about the historical oppression and erasure of women. Rich often wrote about such issues, and though a feminist perspective isn’t stated explicitly in “Diving into the Wreck,” this context certainly enriches the reader's experience of the poem. Specifically, the poem seems to focus on the need for women to examine and learn from the “wreck” of the past, to “see the damage that was done” to them, and, ultimately, to forge ahead with new ways of existing and asserting that existence in an oppressive world.
The speaker has read the “book of myths” that tell tall tales about the wreck, but has found these myths inadequate. Interpreting the poem through a feminist lens, these myths represent the old-fashioned ideas about how women are meant to behave. They are the historical narratives that have shaped gender roles, and thus which have pushed women onto the sidelines of society.
The book of myths is a relic of a male-dominated world, however, and the speaker is deeply suspicious of it. This pushes the speaker into the water, metaphorically into an exploration of women's overlooked history. The speaker is alone and the ocean is deep, underscoring the daunting nature of such an undertaking as well as just how deeply entrenched reductive ideas about gender are, how far back into the past they go and thus how deep the speaker must dive in order to go beyond them. The speaker takes a camera on the dive to document things firsthand, plus a knife—suggesting that questioning accepted ideas about men and women is dangerous.
Upon reaching the wreck, the speaker appreciates its "damage,” but also its “threadbare beauty,” “the ribs of the disaster” as well as the “treasures” contained within. This suggests that there are beautiful stories to be told here, yet they have been "left to rot" at the bottom of the ocean. It is the diver's job to find and document them (hence the camera, and hence this poem).
The speaker then further claims to be both female and female, both a mermaid and merman. This suggests that the speaker can no longer be contained by narrow ideas of femininity or masculinity, and it also perhaps extends the poem's reach to include queer people—insisting that they too have been erased from and damaged by the patriarchal march of history. Indeed, in the poem's final line, the speaker reveals that "our names" do not appear in the book of myths at all. The poem thus becomes a powerful statement on the erasure of women’s voices—and, importantly, a call for those stories that don’t normally get heard to be amplified, understood, and valued.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-21
- Lines 29-33
- Lines 37-43
- Lines 52-70
- Lines 71-94
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Exploration, Vulnerability, and Discovery
“Diving into the Wreck” follows a diver through the preparation and execution of a dive deep into the ocean in order to see to a shipwreck. It’s clear early on, though, that this isn’t just a poem about literal diving. The poem can be read as being specifically about diving into the metaphorical “wreck” of the speaker’s own life, but it also doesn’t need to be taken so narrowly. Indeed, the dive can be thought of as an extended metaphor for exploration in general. The poem examines what it takes to venture into the unknown—whether that unknown be physical, psychological, or both—and suggests the bravery and vulnerability required for meaningful discovery.
The speaker prepares for the dive by putting on “the body-armor of black rubber,” “the absurd flippers,” and “the grave and awkward mask.” The diving uniform at once suggests that this journey is akin to going into battle (hence the need for armor) yet that it’s also a little silly. This evokes the simultaneous excitement and fear that comes with exploring the unknown, as well as the need for a mixture of courage and vulnerability when doing so. The speaker has to be willing to adequately prepare for potential danger, and also has to be okay with looking and/or feeling a little ridiculous.
Similarly, the speaker acknowledges before this dive that a difficult task lies ahead, one full of uncertainty and risk. The poem thus isn’t about pretending not to be afraid, and instead seems to recognize the fear and unease that accompany diving into the unknown.
Indeed, though the speaker has resolved to explore the wreck, the poem also implies that the speaker doesn’t have to. The ladder that leads down into the ocean “is always there / hanging innocently,” and the speaker suggests ladder is both a gateway into a new world and a kind of meaningless object (“maritime floss”) depending on who is looking at it. To potentially discover something meaningful, it’s up to the explorer to put themselves out there—to take that first step into the deep.
What’s more, no one can help the speaker, who is totally alone on this journey—a fact that again suggests the vulnerability required for meaningful exploration and discovery. Yet even if exploration brings with it all kinds of dangers, the explorer might discover “treasures” and “beauty” too. Exploration brings about first-hand experience and understanding, what the speaker calls “the wreck and not the story of the wreck / the thing itself and not the myth.” For the speaker, the willingness to bravely explore this underwater world brings great reward.
Subtly, then, the poem asserts the importance of exploration and discovery, and suggests that embracing the unknown and the difficulties that come with doing so ultimately brings a deeper and richer understanding of whatever is being explored. Part of the poem’s power is that this could apply to almost anything. The poem could be read as an extended metaphor for diving into the depths of one's subconscious mind, for example, or for confronting a past trauma. No single interpretation of the poem is definitive, but they all share an emphasis on the value of exploration, the power of discovery, and the bravery of vulnerability.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 4-7
- Lines 8-12
- Lines 13-21
- Lines 22-33
- Lines 44-51
- Lines 52-60
- Lines 61-70
- Lines 71-77
- Lines 87-94
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Storytelling and Truths
“Diving into the Wreck” is concerned with storytelling. The poem implicitly asks who gets to tell what stories and why. On the one hand, the poem seems to suggest that myths—epic tales that often shape or define a society—should be deeply investigated rather than taken at face value. This might refer to broad cultural myths (such as those about how men and women are supposed to behave), as well as to personal and familial myths—the stories people insist made them who they are.
The poem also seems to argue that there are many stories that still need telling, that have been left out of this mythology altogether. Overall, then, the poem perhaps suggests that people shouldn’t just settle for the usual narratives of the day, and that they should strive to make their own stories heard—and, indeed, listen to those stories and perspectives they have yet to hear.
The speaker prepares for the dive by reading “the book of myths,” loading a camera, and sharpening a knife. These, of course, aren’t the usual tools used in a dive, but function instead as symbols. A camera is a recording device, suggesting the speaker wants to document the wreck (and thus tell a new story of it), while a knife suggests a willingness to be ruthless in the pursuit of truth. The knife also suggests that pursuing such truth can be dangerous. Maybe this is because that truth would unravel the myths that uphold society itself; maybe it's because that truth would simply be painful to confront.
The “book of myths,” meanwhile, seems to be some sort of book filled with tales about the wreck. When the speaker later says that words are "purposes" and "maps," this suggests that stories can provide a sort of guidance and impetus to see something, but it's not the same as actually seeing the thing itself. What's more, this book leaves a lot of people out of its stories. The dive allows the speaker to experience the wreck firsthand, to go beyond the “book of myths” to the truth of things.
The poem isn’t against myths or storytelling. Indeed, the mention of “the sea” as a “story” marks out stories as something fundamental to the human experience (as constant and powerful as the natural world in which humans live). But it seems to make the point that stories can be used in markedly different ways—they can reveal truth, but they can also distort truth over time, just as the “salt and sway” have “damage[d]” the literally wreck beneath the sea.
That’s why the speaker draws a clear distinction between the “story of the wreck” and “the thing itself.” Stories are such an important part of human existence, but they don’t always represent reality—they are instead a way of describing, considering, and interacting with that reality. (The same can be said for the poem, in fact, which is a story about a dive rather than a dive itself!) What's more, the stories and myths central to human existence change all the time—think about how people used to think the Earth was the center of the universe—and so analyzing stories, questioning accepted wisdom, and delving deeper the search for truth serve an important function for humanity.
In the end, it's revealed that the speaker doesn't actually appear in the “book of myths” at all. The poem thus argues that not only are these "myths" separate from truth, but that they also are incomplete. Many stories have yet to be told. The poem encourages readers to "dive into" these tales, to uncover what the myths that have shaped them are leaving out.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-3
- Lines 37-43
- Lines 52-70
- Lines 72-73
- Lines 78-82
- Lines 87-94
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Diving into the Wreck”
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Lines 1-7
First having read ...
... and awkward mask.The poem opens with a list of the speaker's preparations for the dive "into the wreck." In preparation the speaker has "read the book of myths," which immediately signals that the poem is probably not mainly concerned with actual diving.
The word "myths" is important. Myths are stories, often those that explain the origin of something (think of creation myths, for example). To say that something is a myth also means that it's not based in fact, and instead is a false belief. As such, this "book of myths" would be a book of familiar stories about the wreck—but stories that nonetheless aren't necessarily the truth.
The "wreck" itself in turn might represent any number of things. Perhaps this "wreck" refers, metaphorically, to some trauma in the speaker's past (on that note, many critics read the poem as having been influenced by the earlier disintegration of Rich's marriage and death of her ex-husband by suicide). Or perhaps the "wreck" is a metaphor for the oppression of women throughout history.
The specifics are deliberately ambiguous and open to interpretation. What's important is that, if the wreck is read as a metaphor for the past (the speaker's, society's, or otherwise), then the poem is already signalling a need to understand that past in order to go beyond it. The speaker seems concerned with a kind of truth-telling detective work, absorbing the stories of the past as part of the project to better understand the wreck—that is, to better some traumatic incident from the past that has gone on to shape the present.
The speaker has done other things to prepare too, such as loading a camera. This camera perhaps symbolizes an intention to record and catalog the truth the speaker finds, while the knife-blade and "body-armor of black rubber" suggest that there is something inherently dangerous about the journey the speaker is planning to undertake. Maybe these dangers are personal—the speaker will have to grapple with inner demons to face the truth of some traumatic incident—or maybe they're societal; if the poem is taken as a metaphor for women's liberation, then perhaps the weapon here indicates the way that challenging societal norms can be a perilous task.
Lines 4-7 are then a little more conventional in terms of diving equipment—black rubber suits, flippers, and masks are all important tools in actual diving. The anaphora (with the repetition of "the") shows the methodical way in which the speaker goes through each stage of the preparation, while the enjambment suddenly speeds up the lines:
I put on
the body-armor of black rubber
the absurd flippers
the grave ...This speed suggests the speaker's eagerness to get on with these more mundane preparations, which apparently make the speaker feel a bit silly. The speaker says these flippers are "absurd" and the mask is "grave and awkward," reinforcing the difficulty of the task ahead—but also the speaker's discomfort; after all, most people look a bit ridiculous in full scuba gear!
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Lines 8-12
I am having ...
... but here alone. -
Lines 13-21
There is a ...
... some sundry equipment. -
Lines 22-28
I go down. ...
... I go down. -
Lines 29-33
My flippers cripple ...
... will begin. -
Lines 34-43
First the air ...
... the deep element. -
Lines 44-51
And now: it ...
... differently down here. -
Lines 52-60
I came to ...
... fish or weed -
Lines 61-63
the thing I ...
... not the myth -
Lines 64-70
the drowned face ...
... the tentative haunters. -
Lines 71-76
This is the ...
... into the hold. -
Lines 77-82
I am she: ...
... left to rot -
Lines 83-86
we are the ...
... the fouled compass -
Lines 87-94
We are, I ...
... do not appear.
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“Diving into the Wreck” Symbols
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The Wreck
The wreck itself is obviously symbolic in the poem, though what, exactly, it represents is open to interpretation. A wreck is, of course, a remnant of a disaster. To dive into it thus implies facing a disaster head on, exploring something traumatic and horrific in order to better understand it.
In a feminist reading of the poem, the wreck reflects women's history. It's beauty has been eroded, its treasures "left to rot" at the bottom of the ocean. The speaker dives "into the wreck" in order to bear witness to this destruction, to understand the pain and suffering to which women have been subjected for so long, and to tell those stories have been lost.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 52: “I came to explore the wreck.”
- Lines 55-56: “I came to see the damage that was done / and the treasures that prevail.”
- Lines 57-60: “I stroke the beam of my lamp / slowly along the flank / of something more permanent / than fish or weed”
- Lines 62-63: “the wreck and not the story of the wreck / the thing itself and not the myth”
- Lines 74-76: “We circle silently / about the wreck / we dive into the hold.”
- Lines 79-86: “whose breasts still bear the stress / whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies / obscurely inside barrels / half-wedged and left to rot / we are the half-destroyed instruments / that once held to a course / the water-eaten log / the fouled compass”
- Line 90: “back to this scene”
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The Drowned Face
In lines 64-65 and 78 the speaker refers to a "drowned face." This might refer to an actual skull of a victim of the shipwreck, or, perhaps more likely, to the ship's figurehead. A figurehead was small carving placed on the prow (the front) of a ship, generally intended to bring the vessel good luck and ward off evil spirits.
Either way, this "drowned face" comes to symbolize all the victims of the wreck. If the wreck is interpreted as a narrow metaphor about some personal trauma in the speaker's past, then this drowned face can be thought of as representing the consequences of that trauma. The wreck can also be taken to metaphorically represent the broad historical oppression of women, though, which allows this face to represent all those women "drowned" by history—those women whose lives and stories have been erased by a patriarchal society. The fact that throughout history ships' figureheads have frequently been made to look like a woman supports this reading.
Contextually, then, the figurehead here relates to the poem's implicit focus on women's rights. This figurehead, though "drowned," "sleeps with open eyes"—that is, it never sleeps, but rather is "always staring / toward the sun"—towards the surface. This face stares at the surface as though it has something to tell—but, of course, it is stuck at the bottom of the ocean. The face thus represents those stories, ideas, and perceptions left untold—those people who get written out of history by those in power.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Lines 64-65: “the drowned face always staring / toward the sun”
- Line 78: “whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes”
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The Book of Myths
Before diving into the water, the speaker has "read the book of myths." This isn't a real book, but rather a symbol for the narratives that have shaped the speaker's life—and perhaps all of society.
Myths are cultural stories that often aim to explain something about the world. Think of creation myths, or Greek myths that explain why there are seasons and how the sun rises each day. Myths are thus related to origins, and can both reflect and shape cultural values. In the poem, the "book of myths" in part symbolizes broad historical narratives about men and women—the stories that have shaped gender roles and led to women's subservience in society. Similarly, these myths can also be taken as generally representing the stories people tell themselves about their origins and why things are the way they are.
But myths are not the truth. Some myths may be based in a truth, but they are still stories. The poem insists on a division between myths and reality—between the "story of the wreck" and "the thing itself." The speaker wants to go beyond this book of myths to understand the truth—about the speaker's own past, about women's history in general, and so forth.
When the speaker says in lines 53-54 that "words are purposes" and "maps," this suggests that stories can still be valuable to society, offering a sense of purpose and general guidance. Ultimately, though, words are secondary to "the thing itself"—secondary to experience. The poem itself reflects this idea; this is a story about a dive, but reading it is not the same thing as diving into the ocean.
Importantly, the speaker says in the end of the poem that "our names do not appear" in this book of myths. This makes sense when the poem as an extended metaphor for the oppression of women and erasure of women's voices throughout history. The narratives that have shaped society have been written by those with power, and, as such, have left out the "names" of and stories of women and other marginalized people.
Where this symbol appears in the poem:- Line 1: “First having read the book of myths”
- Lines 53-54: “The words are purposes. / The words are maps.”
- Lines 61-63: “the thing I came for: / the wreck and not the story of the wreck / the thing itself and not the myth”
- Lines 92-94: “a book of myths / in which / our names do not appear.”
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“Diving into the Wreck” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Alliteration is used throughout "Diving into the Wreck." This can draw connections between words, focus readers' attention on certain phrases, and evoke a line's content through sound.
The first clear example is in line 5 in the /b/ sound of "body-armour" and "black." These are strong, plosive sounds that momentarily stop the airflow if read aloud. These gives them a kind of slapping quality, like a wetsuit being pulled on tight and pinging into place. The sounds draw attention to the words, which make it seem like preparing to dive is akin to preparing for battle.
Later in the first stanza, the /s/ alliteration (a.k.a. sibilance) of "sun-flooded schooner" gently evokes the sounds of the ocean's surface. Think about the noise of waves, and the soft splash of water breaking against a boat. This is picked up in the second stanza as well, while the speaker is still preparing for the dive and mentions "some sundry equipment" in line 21.
When the speaker begins to make the descent down the ladder into the ocean, line 23 use alliteration in the phrase "rung after rung" (also an example of diacope). This gives the impression of a step-by-step action, evoking the careful but purposeful way that the speaker begins the dive. The harsh alliteration of "cripple" and "crawl" in lines 29 and 30 then draw attention to the difficulty the speaker faces while moving down the ladder in flippers.
In the following stanza, a quick burst of alliteration gives the poem an anxiously excited sound as the speaker heads into the water:
First the air is blue and then
it is bluer and then green and then
black I am blacking out and yet
my mask is powerful
it pumps my blood with power
the sea is another storyThe alliteration above suddenly quickens the pace of the poem, giving it a breathlessness that fits with the somewhat frightening transition from surface world to ocean depths.
Another striking example is in line 55, when the speaker clearly states the purpose of the dive:
I came to see the damage that was done
These two /d/ sounds have a heavy effect, subtly evoking violence and destruction. Then, in the following stanza, sibilance again evokes the watery underworld explored by the speaker in "staring," "sun," "salt and sway."
Looking at the ship, towards the end of the poem, the speaker identifies with its abandoned treasures:
whose breast still bear the stress
whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo liesThe alliteration here perhaps pushes readers to linger on these lines, to better appreciate the abandoned bounty before the speaker. Finally, the final stanza features another striking moment of alliteration with the hard initial sounds of "courage" and "cowardice." Alliteration binds these opposite words together, revealing that both bravery and fear can push someone down towards the wreck.
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 5: “body,” “black”
- Line 11: “sun,” “ schooner”
- Line 16: “side,” “schooner”
- Line 17: “We,” “what”
- Line 18: “we”
- Line 21: “some sundry”
- Line 23: “Rung,” “rung”
- Line 29: “cripple”
- Line 30: “crawl”
- Line 34: “blue”
- Line 35: “bluer”
- Line 36: “black,” “blacking”
- Line 37: “my mask,” “powerful”
- Line 38: “pumps,” “my,” “power”
- Line 39: “sea,” “story”
- Line 40: “sea,” “power”
- Line 42: “to turn”
- Line 49: “between”
- Line 50: “besides”
- Line 51: “ breathe,” “differently down”
- Line 55: “damage,” “done”
- Line 57: “stroke”
- Line 58: “slowly”
- Line 59: “something”
- Line 64: “staring”
- Line 65: “sun”
- Line 67: “salt,” “sway”
- Line 73: “ black,” “body”
- Line 74: “circle silently”
- Line 79: “breasts,” “still,” “bear,” “stress”
- Line 80: “silver,” “copper,” “cargo”
- Line 84: “course”
- Line 86: “compass”
- Line 88: “cowardice,” “courage”
- Line 91: “carrying,” “camera”
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Allusion
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Assonance
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Caesura
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Consonance
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Enjambment
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Extended Metaphor
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Repetition
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Simile
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"Diving into the Wreck" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Cousteau
- Assiduous
- Schooner
- Maritime floss
- Sundry
- Crenellated
- Prevail
- Flank
- Salt and sway
- Assertion
- Tentative
- Haunters
- Mermaid/Merman
- Vermeil
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(Location in poem: Line 9: “Cousteau”)
Jacques Cousteau was a French marine explorer in the 20th century. His deep-sea dives caught the world's imagination and, as the speaker suggests, were aided by the latest equipment and a team of assistants.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Diving into the Wreck”
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Form
"Diving into the Wreck" is a free verse poem, made up of 94 lines broken into 10 stanzas of varying lengths. For the most part, the lines are quite short, making the poem appear long and narrow on the page. The poem's form thus looks like a dive, with the text going deeper and deeper down into the white space of the page. For a striking example, take the third stanza:
I go down.
Rung after rung and still
the oxygen immerses me
the blue light
the clear atoms
of our human air.
I go down.
My flippers cripple me,
I crawl like an insect down the ladder
and there is no one
to tell me when the ocean
will begin.Notice how the poem's form draws the reader's eye downwards, mimicking the diver's transition into the depths of the ocean.
The fact that the poem is written without a regular rhyme scheme or meter also makes it feel unpredictable. This adds a sense of tension to this "dive," and reflects the fact that the speaker also cannot know exactly what to expect in the unfamiliar ocean depths.
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Meter
"Diving into the Wreck" is written in free verse, which means that it doesn't have a regular meter. Generally speaking, this gives the poem an unpredictable sense of movement—allowing it to feel like it flows easily or is constrained depending on what's being discussed. The lack of meter also helps the poem feel conversational, like the speaker is simply telling a story—which, indeed, the speaker is.
Though there is no meter, most of the lines are deliberately kept quite short and most of its phrases and sentences sprawl across lines breaks. This short line length combined with enjambment makes the poem look long and thin on the page. As noted in our Form discussion, this makes the poem itself resemble the act of diving.
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Rhyme Scheme
"Diving into the Wreck" is written in free verse and doesn't have a rhyme scheme. Overall, a regular, predictable rhyme scheme would probably feel somewhat at odds with the kind of exploration into the unknown described by the poem.
In a few instances, though, the poem does use rhyme. Lines 8 and 9 contain a slant rhyme, for example, drawing out the contrast between the speaker's diving method and Cousteau's:
I am having to do this
not like Cousteau with hisLines 31-33 also use slant rhyme:
and there is no one
to tell me when the oceanThe inexactness of the rhymes here helps the poem build tension in anticipation of the moment when the speaker makes it into the ocean depths.
Finally, lines 78-81 feature both perfect and imperfect end and internal rhymes:
whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes
whose breasts still bear the stress
whose silver, copper, vermeil cargo lies
obscurely inside barrelsThis is a distinctly assonant and melodious part of the poem. It is also a moment when the speaker directly identifies with the wreck—with its "drowned" figurehead and abandoned treasures. The rhyme sounds draw emphasis to these descriptions, helping them ring out more clearly to the reader.
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“Diving into the Wreck” Speaker
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The identity of the speaker in "Diving into the Wreck" is one of the most intentionally ambiguous elements of the poem. Initially, the speaker is cast in the first-person. This builds a sense of the speaker/diver as a solitary figure, diving alone into the depths because of desire to see the wreck first hand (to go beyond "the book of myths"). The speaker's solitariness is emphasized by the comparison to Jacques Cousteau—a world-famous deep-sea explorer—in lines 9 and 10. Initially, then, the speaker is a determined figure willing to brave the unknown. The speaker has a clear purpose: to explore the wreck.
But the speaker becomes more complicated as the poem goes on. In lines 72 and 73, the speaker is both "mermaid" and "merman," part human and part fish, both female and male. This is then restated boldly in line 77's "I am she: I am he." The poem intentionally destabilizes the speaker's identity in order to draw attention to gender—specifically to bring maleness and femaleness together in a way that makes the distinction between the categories seem less significant and more fluid than perhaps the "book of myths" has made them out to be.
To further destabilize the speaker's identity, the speaker also uses "we" (shifting from the first-person "I"). But perhaps destabilize is the wrong word—maybe the poem is widening the scope of the speaker's identity. Indeed, based on the evidence of the other poems in the same collection, this collective "we" might well apply to all of womankind—and perhaps even to the men who understand and support the struggle for women's liberation. In line 87, the speaker also places some of the responsibility of this struggle on the reader themselves ("you are").
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“Diving into the Wreck” Setting
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The poem takes place in two locations: on a boat above the ocean, and then beneath the water. At first, the speaker is preparing for a deep sea dive, donning all the proper gear—the "black rubber" suit, the "absurd flippers," the "grave and awkward" scuba mask. The speaker then climbs down a ladder on the side of the boat and into the water, crossing a boundary of sorts between the world of the surface and that which lies beneath. Metaphorically, this suggests the speaker moving from a superficial level of understanding (beyond the world that exists in "the book of myths") towards the deeper truth of things.
The world below is very different from that above, and the speaker feels anxious upon first entering the water. Though the scuba mask pumps the speaker with oxygen, the speaker must ultimately adapt to the water's own rules—must "learn alone / to turn my body without force / in the deep element." The speaker then reaches "the wreck," the remains of a sunken ship that the speaker has been searching for. The frame of the boat curves upward like a rib cage, and all the tools and treasures that sunk with the boat have been abandoned, "left to rot" beneath the water.
This, of course, is a fairly literal way of looking at the poem. But the poem hints that the dive is a metaphor for something else right from the beginning. It becomes up to the reader to interpret the meaning of the wreck, to decide what the wreck stands for. To the speaker, it represents the opportunity to find out some kind of truth that contrasts with the tired wisdom of the "book of myths."
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Literary and Historical Context of “Diving into the Wreck”
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Literary Context
"Diving into the Wreck" was published in an impassioned collection of the same title, which won the 1974 National Book Award for Poetry. Rich accepted the award alongside Audre Lorde and Alice Walker, on behalf of all women "whose voices have gone and still go unheard in a patriarchal world."
Early in her career, Rich often wrote using traditional poetic structures like meter and rhyme. With its intimate language and lack of a clear poetic form, “Diving into the Wreck" reflects Rich's later adoption of free verse, which she found less "distancing" and restrictive than meter.
Along with friends such as Lorde and June Jordan, Rich helped lead a generation of female and LGBTQ poets whose work challenged patriarchal, racist, and homophobic power structures in America and beyond. Rich's commitments to feminism and left-wing politics grew over the course of the 1960s, in parallel with the growing women's liberation movement and other social movements of the era. Her collections from the late '60s (including Leaflets) and early '70s (including The Will to Change and Diving into the Wreck) are considered landmarks of feminist and LGBTQ literature.
Historical Context
As both a writer and activist, Adrienne Rich was a leading voice in what is now known as second-wave feminism (or "women's liberation," the term she preferred). After leaving an unhappy marriage and coming out as a lesbian, Rich also became a leader in the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
Second-wave feminism extended from the 1960s through the 1980s and sought to redress a wide range of social injustices. Where first-wave feminism had largely focused on women's suffrage, the second wave centered on issues such as reproductive freedom, workplace opportunity and equality, and legal protections against sexual harassment and domestic violence. Its advocates opposed the belief (widespread in post-World War II America) that a woman's proper place was in the home, keeping house, raising children, and supporting men's ambitions. Betty Friedan's bestseller The Feminine Mystique (1963), which directly challenged the notion that women should be content with this "housewife-mother" role, is often credited with launching second-wave feminism.
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More “Diving into the Wreck” Resources
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External Resources
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In the Poet's Own Voice — Adrienne Rich reads "Diving into the Wreck."
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Rich in the New Yorker — An insightful analysis of Rich's poetic work from the New Yorker.
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Rich's Life and Work — A valuable resource from the Poetry Foundation.
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Plato and the Androgyne — An excerpt from Plato's discussion of the androgyne figure, which appears recurrently in Rich's poetry from around this time.
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Feminism and Poetry — A wonderful selection of poems organized by their relationship to the different stages of the feminist movement.
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LitCharts on Other Poems by Adrienne Rich
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