Outside

Most of the poem takes place in a natural, outdoor space. The reader is given a fair amount of description about what this space looks like. Indeed, the only role the narrator plays in the poem is essentially giving readers directions for how to get there. It is over a hill and inside a vale, where there is also a river. This unites multiple different pastoral landscapes, presenting the natural world all at once as a space of potential purgation and transformation.

Unspecified Town

This isn't a very specific setting. However, it is clear that most of the poem's remembered action – the entire relationship between the young woman and the seducer – took place in some kind of other setting than where the poem is actually being narrated. It is not a natural landscape, but likely a city or town setting. Beyond that, there are not many details provided...