Intended as a rival English settlement to Jamestown, the Popham Colony was established at the mouth of the Kennebec River in present-day Phippsburg, Maine. The colonists faced a catastrophic winter characterized by sub-zero temperatures, dense snows, and a devastating fire that destroyed their storehouse and main lodgings, leaving them exposed to the elements. Under the leadership of young Raleigh Gilbert, the settlers endured severe frostbite, malnutrition, and isolation from England, managing to construct the 'Virginia of Sagadahoc', the first ocean-going vessel built by Europeans in New England, before ultimately abandoning the fort out of sheer exhaustion in 1608.

The harrowing journals and letters sent back by the Popham leaders heavily influenced early colonial promotional literature and poetry, adding a dark note of caution to the mythological narrative of the New World. The extreme hardships they suffered helped shape a distinct literary genre of early American wilderness poetry that emphasized the terrifying, unyielding power of the North American winter, a theme that would echo through the works of later New England poets like John Greenleaf Whittier.