1 what do u mean by her face ashen like a corpse? which poetic device has been used?

2 what familiar ache did the poetess feel?

3 what it means "all i did was smile smile smile"?

face ashen like corpse means that the old lady was so dull faced that her face looked like a dead body her, face was sopale n so lifeless

(2)poetess felt the pain of loosing her mother

(3)this means that although she was so upset to see her mother's conditionbut all she did was smiling n saying goodbye