The poems in Isn't It Romantic? are set primarily in and around the Connecticut River Valley of central Connecticut, where the speaker wanders, trying to do his best Wordsworth impression without much success. He sees redemption in Franciscan acts of kindness (even as he does violence out of ignorance, by accident, or in the name of practicality), considers how people come to or are driven to certain crossroads, wonders what is waiting on the other side of this existence, and supposes that the individual, if not humanity collectively, still has a chance to take it easy on the earth.