The poem has one setting: the Piedmont Mountains. This mountain range, which marks the Franco-Italian border, is surrounded on all sides by the Alps. For centuries, it was the home to the Waldensians, who lived there in relative toleration of their religious practices. Some lived in the valleys, and some higher up on the mountains themselves. The Duke de Savoie demanded the Waldensians either convert or abandon their fertile valley property, and the vast majority chose the latter, joining the fellow members of their religion on the mountains themselves. The Duke followed them with an enormous military force, and thus this became the setting for the massacre of the Waldensians.

The poet describes the mountain as a "cold," stark place (2). The mountains themselves became a source of violence, as the speaker depicts bodies being dashed on its rocks. And yet the setting is also a place...