[5] The story of Isabel, released from wardship in the priory by legal order and William Fairfax's intervention, has not been verified independently of Marvell's account.
Local geography enters the poem in the mention of Cawood Castle, within walking distance of Ryther to the east.
Both the ruined nunnery and the castle (associated with the Archbishops of York, and in particular with John Williams)[7] are contrasted in the poem with Appleton House.
[13] The poem was influenced by works of Mildmay Fane, 2nd Earl of Westmorland and Constantijn Huyghens; it also draws on Antoine Girard de Saint-Amant, a poet whom Fairfax had translated.
[14] There are numerous interpretations, including those of Abraham who sees the poem as a memory map (to regain Paradise),[15][16] and Stocker, who sees it as an "epic in miniature" and reads closely the later sections for apocalyptic language relating to England as elect nation.