The Guitarist Tunes Up Setting

Where It All Goes Down

Cornford doesn't give us much to go on in terms of the setting in this one. With only eight lines, we're lucky to have a poem at all. Still, the content does give us kind of an indoor feeling with the mention of instruments. And musicians are an indoors-y bunch, right? Since the guitarist is tuning up, it feels a little more formal than just a dude noodling around on his guitar. Perhaps the speaker is at a guitar recital of some kind.

When the speaker compares the guitarist and his guitar to lovers, we might mentally shift the setting to something a bit more private and romantic, but there certainly isn't anything in the poem that places us in the great outdoors.