This poem has no specific setting. Some of the imagery, like the "wave" imagery of the ninth line, suggest an outdoor, perhaps seaside setting (9). However, on closer reading it is clear that this is only an allusion, and that the poem does not make any particular mention of where it is set. Because the poem is as philosophical in nature as it is personal, the setting is likely the same setting as Herrick's – that is, early modern England in the middle of the English Civil War. The poem is commenting on the constraints of seventeenth-century English society at the same time it expresses a personal opinion about appearances and the values of imperfections.