Adrienne Rich - "Diving into the Wreck"

List of images:

Body-armor of black rubber
Awkward mask
Flippers
Camera
Knife
Book of myths
Ladder
Wreck
Mermaid
Merman
Drowned face sleeps with open eyes
Water-eaten log

Adrienne Rich’s poem, “Diving into the Wreck,” is filled magnificent imagery from beginning to end. She commences her poem by describing how she prepares herself in order to dive down into the deep, blue sea. Her choice of words such as “body-armor of black rubber,” “awkward mask,” and “flippers,” make it easy for the reader to visualize her words. It is as if though I was the one plunging into the water and fulfilling all the tasks she describes within her poem.

Rich begins her poem with the image of a book of myths, she then continues to discuss what it is like to experience the ocean first hand, and finally ends her poem by stating that the book of myths lacks information. My interpretation of the book of myths verses plunging into the water first-hand is that in order to capture all the characteristics that something encloses, it is essential for someone to experience it on a personal level. By simply reading a book, or taking in the words of others, it is not the same as personally living that experience. By diving into the water for herself, Rich could compare reality to the words she had previously read. In doing so, she discovered that what she had learned previously was missing some facts.

Aside from her poem being wonderfully written, where words turn into images, I feel that Rich’s poem has more to say than simply describing a wreck. Not taking someone’s word, and experiencing something for ones own self goes for many things. In her poem, Rich decides to push the book of myths out of her way and instead put on her own flippers. There are some things in life that a person just has to live and experience for himself. Only then may a person be the judge.