The title likely gives the woman’s age: ninety-four. The speaker watches her, trying to tell whether she is “still in there” — whether some spark of recognition or personality remains — but finds nothing. The phrase “nothing doing” is strangely casual and resigned; it makes the moment feel flat, as if this checking has happened many times before. There is very little action, just a long, tired look.
The final question opens the poem outward. “What will it take / to bring us both / to life again?” matters because the speaker does not only want to revive the old woman. The speaker admits to feeling dead or numb too. The mood is quiet and grief-stricken, but not melodramatic: it sits somewhere between hoping for a miracle and expecting none.