There is no setting specified in the poem. Rather, the poem is a concentrated argument from the speaker to the addressee, in which the speaker attempts to convince the woeful addressee that love does not exist. Given the likelihood that the speaker-addressee relationship is one between mother and daughter, the implied setting of the poem is the home or domestic sphere. The speaker shares intimate thoughts with the addressee, and in so doing reveals that she herself has suffered from the pains of a lost love. As such, one can assume the speaker and listener are in a private setting that allows for this type of candid conversation about the impossibility of love.