In this poem the author, Adrienne Rich, speaks in first person about diving into the ocean to explore shipwreck remains. In the beginning she arms herself with her diving gear while alone on the deck of a sun-flooded schooner. She proceeds to crawl down the side of the schooner on a ladder, rung after rung, into the ocean water. Then once she is immersed in the water she goes down to explore the wreck following the beam of her lamp. Seeing evidence of damage caused by the ocean, conditions such as salt swirling the figurehead, she circles about the wreck and dives into the hold. Finally she takes notice of cargo lying about: silver, copper, vermeil, half-destroyed instruments, and the fouled compass.
Adrienne Rich was born in Baltimore, Maryland in the year 1929. She graduated from Radcliffe College and published her first book of poems in the year 1951. She has won many prizes and awards including two Guggenheim fellowships. “Diving into the wreck” clarifies Rich’s past, anticipates her future. The poem’s syntax, which alternates between didactic directness and suggestive elusiveness, subjects every perception, every impression to immediate and continuing revision. My thoughts on this poem are that I believe Adrienne Rich is actually analyzing her own life.
She might be moving onto something that she is unsure of. There is the possibility that she unaware of what she is sailing towards. She feels the need to be prepared for whatever might cross her path. She arms herself with knowledge, past experience, and seems very assured of where she has been even though she isn’t quite sure where she is going.
The Essay on Poems by Adrienne Rich
Conflict can be internal or external, as exemplified in “Diving into the Wreck” and “Storm Warnings”. Conflict is the common theme between these two poems. Both of these poems were written by Adrienne Rich. Rich was an American poet and she was also a feminist. She wrote “Diving into the Wreck” during time period where women were still viewed as house wives. Even though some women had jobs, they ...
