Diving into the Wreck Quizzes

Diving into the Wreck Quiz

1 What does the speaker do before diving into the wreck?
Think about the value of poetry

Come up with a list of items she would like to find

Research its history

Read "the book of myths"
2 Which of the following is *not* a possible interpretation of "the book of myths" the speaker readers?
a symbol for history

Ovid's Metamorphoses

a book of cultural myths

literal books about history
3 Why does the speaker carry a camera?
To take selfies

To document her voyage

To see if it will work underwater

As a weight to remind her of her heavy task
4 How can we best interpret the speaker's carrying a knife?
In case of shark attacks

To scare other divers away

To cut through reeds

To defend herself against danger
5 What is the form of the poem?
Free verse

Vilanelle

Sestina

Sonnet
6 Who was Jacques Costeau?
A noted physican

A french diver, documentarian, and inventory of scuba gear

The speaker's ex-husband

A 19th-century poet
7 Which of the following is *not* a detail that establishes the poem's maritime setting?
A ladder leading from the boat into the water

The speaker's flippers

The taste of salt in the air

blue-black water
8 How can you interpret the detail that the speaker "crawl[s] like an insect" into the ocean?
Like an insect, she is part of a colony

She wants to emphasize that, like an insect, she has an exoskeleton

The task ahead of her makes her feel small

She feels creepy
9 What is the speaker looking for as she dives into the wreck?
A hidden treasure

Evidence of a crime

The truth

The remains of loved ones
10 Which of the following is *not* a way the wreck is described?
"The disaster"

As the ruins of a romantic relationship

As a person with a flank and face

"the thing itself and not the myth"
11 After the speaker's dive, which of the following does she see?
reeds and fish

eels

the furniture that was on the ship

manta rays
12 How can we interpret the speaker's identification with the mermaid?
A show of mourning

Evidence of her lesbian separatism

An identification with all women

Her enthrallment with the world of imagination and fantasy
13 Why does the speaker begin to use "we" in stanza seven?
She is literally exploring alongside the mermaid and merman

Her friends have joined her

She refers to the whole history of women authors

To show solidarity with all those who have been erased from history
14 How can we interpret the speaker's claim that "we are the half-destroyed instruments"?
Poets are not thought to be useful

There are ruined musical instruments on the ship

Rich is comparing herself to tools like the compass and barometer

"we" have all been half-destroyed by the violence of history, symbolized by the shipwreck
15 How can we interpret the metaphor of the shipwreck?
Is it a metaphor for a relationship gone wrong

It is a metaphor for history

It is a metaphor for men's violence against women

It is a metaphor for the low status of poetry
16 What does the speaker mean when she says she carries "a book of myths in which our names do not appear"?
She was left out of the book by a hostile biographer.

The book doesn't contain any names because it is trying to report only on the science of the shipwreck.

Women's names to do not appear in the history books.

The book is too old to contain a record of her birth.

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