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Passed On: Commentary “Passed On” is a metaphorical poem, written in free verse, telling the story of a mother’s death, and her legacy of index cards. The author begins by giving her first impression of the box, telling about its background and creation. She explains how the precious drops of her mother’s last hours were generously and deliberately poured into the index cards. The daughter (the sex of the author and the reference to Greek men in like 21 both allude to the narrator being a girl) senses that the mother is slowly beginning to pass away: “I’d nag her, seeing strength/ drain, ink-blue, from her finger-ends”(line 4-5), and begins to become helplessly frustrated. The daughter has come to the errant conclusion that the reason that her mother’s health is failing so rapidly is because of the energy she is putting into the box of notes, seeing her mother scribble with “squirrel concentration”(3), hinting at her rapidly diminishing span of attention. The daughter seems to be in a state of denial, “trying not to understand”(7) the reasoning of her mother’s preparation. Her mother, on the other hand, understands that her time is almost over. She is struggling to create a substitute, a compass