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At no point does the speaker indicate a particular setting where the poem takes place. That said, it’s clear that the speaker is suffering within conditions they find constraining, even hostile. As they put it in lines 9–10, they are living in a “place of wrath and tears,” beyond which “looms but the Horror of the shade.” The language here suggests that the speaker is referring less to a real place in the world and more to an abstract psychological space. Indeed, the phrase “Horror of the shade” strongly suggests the inevitability of death, which the speaker wants to resist. In this sense, the poem’s setting could simply be understood as life itself, complete with all its existential challenges and complications. Though perhaps vague, the vagueness of the setting is arguably what has given the poem broad relevance and a wide readership. Without additional details to restrict the possible range of meanings, the poem could apply as much to the everyday struggles of life as to particular conditions of cruelty and constraint—from school bullying to social discrimination to colonial subjugation.

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