Life on Earth

All of the poem's settings are metaphorical. A number of different metaphors are used to describe life here on Earth, from "the pit" to "the poles" to "this place of wrath and tears" (1-9). None of these refer to real places on Earth, but they create an overall image of the world as a place full of dismay and despair.

Life after Death

The other place imagined in the poem is somewhere one goes after death. The specifics are not clearly explained, but the speaker tells us that there is nothing except "the Horror of the shade" (10). That is, there is not a literal afterlife, but a place of suffering, judgment, and more despair waiting after death. Ultimately, though, the speaker declares that this does not matter as he has control over his own soul on earth.