What metaphors are used in The Undertaking: Life Studies from the Dismal Trade by Thomas Lynch?

In Chapter Seven, we learn that Thomas thinks Mary Jackson can, metaphorically speaking, bring the dead to life. She could reminisce about dead people like no one else. Thomas then notes from the present day that they had buried Wilbur Johnson a few years before but there was no fanfare. She had the gift of voices. Thomas then reproduces the poem he wrote, "At the Opening of Oak Grove Cemetery Bridge".