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Whereas the setting of the first stanza remains unclear, the second stanza clearly takes place on a “surf-tormented shore” (line 13). The abrupt change—or revelation—of setting in the second stanza marks a clear shift in the speaker’s mental state. In the first stanza, the speaker seems sure of their opinions. It is this certainty that leads him to make the assertion that closes the stanza: “All that we see or seem / Is but a dream within a dream” (lines 10–11). Here, there appears to be no need to describe the setting, since the speaker needs no external confirmation of their point of view. In the second stanza, however, the speaker’s mind has grown more troubled and uncertain. This agitated uncertainty yields the poem’s closing lines, where the speaker rephrases their earlier assertion as a question: “Is all that we see or seem / But a dream within a dream?” (lines 23–24). Because the speaker has lost their earlier sense of certainty, they may feel the need to conjure an environment that will reflect their state of mind back to them, as if to confirm the reality of their distress. The tumultuous seashore provides just such confirmation.

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