My apologies for the late reply ... I wasn't checking my expired posts.
Anyway, thanks for your insightful and detailed analysis. This poem is one of the special ones as it is auto-biographical. It's been over 25 years, and yet I can recall the incident like it happened yesterday. For me, the introduction is as impactful as the poem itself. Being remembered ... it's our only guaranteed life after death, and I sense that the drive to do so, be remembered, lies deep within us all.