The poem's setting takes place entirely in the natural landscape of an unnamed location as the Magi journey to the Birth. Most of the description is of the harshness of the landscape, the relentless cold, and the warm memory of a summer long since past. There is vivid imagery of the streams, trees, and wild horses that they pass on their way to the manger. The poet also highlights their determination to finish the journey by focusing on the challenges of "night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters, / And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly/ And the villages dirty and charging high prices" (13-15).