One of the factors which stands out when discussing this poem is its focus on hardship. The magi come out of wealth and luxury, and the entire first section of the poem focuses on giving up those comforts, going into great depth in detailing some of that opulence which their journey has forced them to set aside. The journey is described as difficult, as they travel in a fashion far humbler than the lifestyle to which they are accustomed. The Magi are depicted second-guessing themselves and their decision to embark on this journey. Yet, at the same time, with hindsight, after all is said and done, the speaker in the poem is also resolute in his conviction that the journey was very much worth the pains and troubles which went into it and that he would do it again if such an opportunity were offered him.

The last part of the poem looks toward what the magi might have taken away from their experience. Here we see things viewed from the perspective of distant recollection, as the poem details what insight that encounter might have granted to someone who shared in it. And here, the poem's narrator does not seem to fully grasp the full significance of what he witnessed. He is shown grappling with the duality of birth and death and struggling to understand the meaning of why he was brought there to begin with (and in both cases, a clear explanation seems to elude him). Even so, the poem is clear that, in the end, the magi return homeward, fundamentally transformed by that experience to the point that his own native land has begun to seem foreign to him.