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“i carry your heart with me” doesn’t have a concrete setting. At no point in the poem does the speaker refer to anything that would provide a clear sense of time or place. That said, the poem may be understood as residing in a more abstract realm, one evoked through the speaker’s references to generic tropes that come from a long lineage of love poetry. Consider, for instance, the speaker’s frequent references to the heart, and to the symbolic importance of the heart as the organ most closely associated with romantic love. Indeed, the association of the heart with romantic love is so longstanding and well-worn as to be a cliché. Elsewhere in the poem the speaker expresses their love through references to the sun, moon, and stars, as well as to images of vitality drawn from the natural world. English-language poets have long used such cosmic bodies to describe the scale and scope of their affection. Likewise, love poets have long used nature imagery to describe the energizing effects of romantic love. With no concrete setting to speak of, it makes most sense to situate the poem in an abstract realm populated by these generic tropes of love poetry.

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