Answer

To the speaker she is the past and all the people at home think about is the present and the future: ‘tomorrow… and dwelt upon the pleasant way’. They talk of tomorrow, perhaps thinking briefly of the loss of their friend with ‘we shall be plod plod along the featureless sands’ as if this is a sense of funeral for their dead friend. The optimism is not completely lost as they say ‘Tomorrow shall be like today, but much more sweet’ as if they will put their friend to rest and then be able to move on and continue to celebrate their own lives.

Tomorrow is ‘strong with hope’ in stanza 3 and ‘no one spoke of yesterday’. They are all still alive, but there is a sense of sadness, even anger from the speaker with the line ‘I, only I had passed away’ as she feels ‘I was of yesterday’. Perhaps she is bitter to be dead and deprived of the joys of life.