Diving into the Wreck

Study Guide

Literary Devices

Setting

Save

Literary Devices Setting

“Diving into the Wreck” primarily takes place at first above and then beneath the ocean. The opening stanza finds the speaker on a boat, gearing up for a dive. After descending the ladder attached to the boat, the speaker plunges into the ocean and begins their descent toward a shipwreck. The poem’s submerged setting is significant for the way it echoes a tradition of descent narratives in Western literature, where heroic figures go to the underworld in search of vital information. The setting is also significant for the way the underwater wreck symbolizes that which has been forgotten or unexamined. Just looking at the ocean’s churning surface, the casual observer would never know that something significant lies down below. The speaker must therefore undertake a dangerous journey to discover what remains hidden from view. Whether or not the speaker retrieves any material artifacts from the wreck, they’ll certainly bring important knowledge up to the surface. In this way, the poem’s setting may also be understood as a metaphor for different levels of awareness. What’s below the surface remains hidden from view and unexamined, and it must be retrieved for conscious awareness through a perilous journey into the subconscious.

Next section Themes