The Diver
The Diver - meaning Summary
The Plunge of Living
"The Diver" uses the image of a tower diver to dramatize human confrontation with mortality. The diver's pause, the arc into water, and his resurfacing stand for moments of choice, risk, and renewal. The poem frames life as repeated acts of ascent and deliberate plunge, each bound by breath and time. In the final stanza the speaker aligns himself and the reader with the diver, acknowledging the shared courage required to live fully despite knowing death.
Read Complete AnalysesThe diver pausing on the tower— draws in one breath— the crest of time, the pride, the hour that answers death— and down to where the long pool lies marks out his curve; descending light that star-like flies from air to wave as summer falls from trees and eyes, and youth, and love. Then, from the rocking depths’ release, naked and new the headfirst man springs up, and sees and still to do— the tower to climb, the pause to make, the fill of breath to gather in—the step to take from birth to death. Then, you who turn and climb the stair and stand alone— with you I draw that breath, and dare, time’s worst being known.
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