Diving into the Wreck Quizzes

Diving into the Wreck Quiz

1 What does the speaker do before diving into the wreck?
Come up with a list of items she would like to find

Read "the book of myths"

Think about the value of poetry

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

literal books about history

Ovid's Metamorphoses

a book of cultural myths
3 Why does the speaker carry a camera?
To take selfies

To see if it will work underwater

To document her voyage

As a weight to remind her of her heavy task
4 How can we best interpret the speaker's carrying a knife?
To scare other divers away

To defend herself against danger

In case of shark attacks

To cut through reeds
5 What is the form of the poem?
Sestina

Vilanelle

Free verse

Sonnet
6 Who was Jacques Costeau?
A 19th-century poet

The speaker's ex-husband

A noted physican

A french diver, documentarian, and inventory of scuba gear
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

blue-black water

The speaker's flippers

The taste of salt in the air
8 How can you interpret the detail that the speaker "crawl[s] like an insect" into the ocean?
She feels creepy

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

The task ahead of her makes her feel small

Like an insect, she is part of a colony
9 What is the speaker looking for as she dives into the wreck?
Evidence of a crime

A hidden treasure

The truth

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

"the thing itself and not the myth"

As a person with a flank and face

As the ruins of a romantic relationship
11 After the speaker's dive, which of the following does she see?
manta rays

the furniture that was on the ship

eels

reeds and fish
12 How can we interpret the speaker's identification with the mermaid?
A show of mourning

An identification with all women

Her enthrallment with the world of imagination and fantasy

Evidence of her lesbian separatism
13 Why does the speaker begin to use "we" in stanza seven?
To show solidarity with all those who have been erased from history

She refers to the whole history of women authors

Her friends have joined her

She is literally exploring alongside the mermaid and merman
14 How can we interpret the speaker's claim that "we are the half-destroyed instruments"?
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

There are ruined musical instruments on the ship

Poets are not thought to be useful
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"?
The book is too old to contain a record of her birth.

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

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.

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