A Funeral or Wake

The poem never directly places the speaker in a specific setting, but they appear to be preparing for a funeral or wake based on the directions they are giving to the people around them in both stanzas and the shrouded body described in the second stanza.

A Kitchen

In stanza one, the speaker portrays a scene in a kitchen by instructing someone to “whip in kitchen cups concupiscent curds” (2-3). It is not directly stated that is where the speaker is, but the continued use of verbs and imagery of movement suggests the speaker might be in a busy kitchen. The poem suggests through the image of a busy kitchen that the best way to live is to experience life’s mundane moments with all your senses.

An Interior Room

In the second stanza, the setting changes to an interior room described as having “a...