“Diving Into the Wreck” Poem Analysis

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In this poem “Diving Into the Wreck”, the poet Adrienne Rich seems to take the audiences on a spooky underwater adventure. Sea creatures, sunken treasures, dead bodies, and mysteries abound. The poem on it’s own seems to just be a documentary about the wreck of a ship, but when taking a deeper view at the poem, there is a whole other world to be discovered. “Diving Into the Wreck” fits the idea of searching one’s memories and one’s past. This is a journey only possible to be accomplished alone. So the using the symbolism of the dive and the shipwreck, appears to be that the poet wants to travel back in time to find out what happened in her past life that has left her damaged in someway. In the first stanza of the poem, the narrator prepares herself mentally physically before she began the journey. She states, “First having read the book of myths, and loaded the camera, and checked the edge of the knife-blade,”(1-3). The book myths symbolize the stories that the narrator has heard about her past, and the camera is likely for her to record new learning on the journey. The narrator has to dive deep into the water, which is dark and means that this journey was fearful. So the knife-blade is there to offer protection from painful and damaging memories. In addition, this journey of the author exploring her past memories, it’s “not like Cousteau with his assiduous team aboard the sun-flooded schooner but here alone. (9-12) This means there won’t be any supports or help from others involved. The narrator is the only person who recognizes the damage and struggle inside of her, so she must and only possible to compete the journey on her own. Many things to one “it is a piece of maritime floss some sundry equipment. (20-21)”, but to the narrator this journey’s experience can be extremely meaningful, and treasured later on. The “My flippers cripple me, I crawl like an

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