There is no explicit or tangible setting mentioned in the poem. While the speaker makes reference to cities and lands, the actual landscape of the poem itself is situated within the speaker's own mind. Physically and geographically, she might be almost anywhere. The poem is her exploration of the nature of loss, and the issue is clearly personal for her, as she works to explain to herself why losing things, “Isn’t hard to master” (1) and in fact “is no disaster” (3).