The speaker, somewhere off the coast of Naples, finds himself in a state of dejection. Even as he takes in the surrounding natural wonders, his pain is alleviated only by the thought of his death. Although he imagines that few would miss him, the possibility of regret and the memory of this beautiful day suggests that all is not lost, no matter awful the speaker may feel. The magnitude of the speaker's emotion combined with the grandeur of the coast gestures to the sublime, a philosophical and aesthetic theme that was popular among Shelley and his contemporaries. By the end, the speaker opens himself to the possibility of change.
