Diving into the Wreck Literary Elements

first-person speaker who begins to identify with a larger "we" as the poem progresses

ten stanzas of free-verse poetry

The poem as a whole can be viewed as a metaphorical conceit, in which diving into the wreck is a metaphor for looking deeply into the past in order to create new narratives and new poems.

The simile "I crawl like an insect" compares the speaker to an insect, emphasizing her smallness and sense of alienation from her everyday experience in the face of the vast ocean.

alliteration: "body-armor of black rubber," "it pumps my blood with power," "carrying a knife, a camera"

lyric poem

at the site of a sea wreck

determined, steadfast

The poem briefly personifies the wreck, imagining that its "flank" is illuminated by a flashlight, and imagining its "drowned face always staring / toward the sun."