" The reader is meant to empathize with the situation and to smell the stink of oncoming death as compared to the living and the dead which had been visited earlier, presumably by all the family, excepting perhaps the diabetic grandmother, who sensed here own approaching and imminent passing on.

The rest of the adherents in the poem are enjoying the treat provided by father, even though the "recipe was secret" (5) while the grandmother is preparing for death. The poet states that the participant did not even remember the taste of the treat (25) which could have been an implication for the fact that the participant did not remember the grandmother. The evidence of this is found in line 16 when the poet ties "lavender" to both the grandmother and the treat.

In lines 8 and 9 it tells how the character in the poem 'galloped through the grassed-over...
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