Diving In....

This was the first time I have been exposed to Adrienne Rich. “Diving into the Wreck” was a poem that really stuck out to me. For me, the poem signified someone, especially a woman, diving into life. This whole notion of it being a “wreck” made it make sense in my mind. Rich’s use of black water was quite interesting. When I think of black water, I think of coldness, death, and something terrifying. These are all feelings that come up throughout the struggles of life.

Even if my interpretation isn’t spot on, I still made a deep connection with this particular poem. In my life, I have often felt as if I was “diving into the wreck”. There are so many things I am unsure about and so many trials I have had to overcome. It’s scary and often feels like being in black water. I liked how Rich used the flippers as something negative. The speaker said they crippled her. I can relate the flippers to many different things in life. Flippers are a necessity when diving, but they also had a way of impacting the situation in a negative way. One connection for me with this might be my goals in life. As necessary as they are, they can also cripple me in a way that is self-defeating. That is just one of the many ways I have interpreted the meaning.

I may have babbled a bit and not made much sense, but in a nutshell, Adrienne Rich’s poem drew me in and allowed me to make real-life connections from my own experiences.