[STANZA I.]
"In Nova Scotia's woods."
This poem was written in Windsor, Nova Scotia, at Kingscroft, the residence of Mr. Charles G. D. Roberts, where the author was staying when the news of the poet's death reached him. Kingscroft is situated on the edge of a beautiful wood of great fir-trees on an elevation overlooking the Avon River and the Basin of Minas.
[STANZA III.]
"Far off where Scituate lapses to the sea."
Scituate, where the poet died, is a village lying midway between Boston and Plymouth on that part of the coast of Massachusetts which is known as the South Shore. The country is of a gently undulating character, and the view seaward is across salt marshes broken here and there with low hillocks of a sandy formation.
[STANZA XIV.]
"A double loss."
The poet Whittier died but a few days after the death of Parsons.