A literary analysis; The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift

I present to you my qualifications to dissect this album:

• A degree in literature 

• A deep love of Miss Swift and her spectacular art

• The fact that I sat down and wrote this in the first place

With that addressed, let’s begin!

Author’s Note: Listening to relevant songs/the whole album will improve reading experience;)

The Tortured Poets Department is Taylor Swift’s eleventh album and is without a doubt the most intensely literary work she has produced thus far (you know I’m getting serious if a ‘thus’ is involved). From my first listen, dozens of literary references and interesting thematic threads piqued my interest. After a few more listens, some note taking and some initial research, I thought I had enough to say that it might warrant a space here on my bookshelf. I know The Tortured Poets Department (TTPD from this point onwards) is not a book but in my opinion the majority of songs, and certainly these songs, are poetry set to music and therefore warrant consideration as such. This is really just me justifying how long I’ve spent analysing this album! TTPD is a raw, cathartic, splurging of agony. To me it is undeniably poetry. Although there are certain lyrics and songs that lean into that more than others (I’m looking at you Charlie Puth line … JAIL!). I think this album, more than any of her others, requires a keen listening ear to truly grasp the complexities of it. 

I’ve heard criticism that this album sounds like things Swift has done before. While I don’t wholly disagree - there is a definite folklore evermore vibe here - I don’t honestly know why that’s a bad thing. I didn’t hear that critique with folklore and evermore which are undeniably similar albums sonically and thematically with Swift herself calling them “sister albums”. Furthermore, Taylor Swift has had a lot more musical variety than many other popular artists. She has moved through at least four genres, country, pop, the reputation hip hop moment and indie folk. Lots of artists stick to one genre throughout their career, and that’s not a bad thing! One artist I love very dearly for example, Hozier, has three albums and while his style has developed and he’s trying some new things, you can always tell a Hozier song when it comes on. Same goes for Simon and Garfunkle and Etta James (my other great musical loves). It doesn’t mean everything sounds the same. It’s called having a style! In conclusion; no I don’t think this album is repetitive. At times I think similarities are purposeful; there are tracks with specific sonic references to old songs! For example, breakup songs sampling the original love songs. I also think it’s important to remember that Swift has recently completed the gargantuan task of rerecording her entire catalogue to control her art. Is it a surprise therefore that she is revisiting some Debut country sounds, some of the folksy vibes of the folklore evermore era with a twinge of sparkly Midnights magic in there? 

A big disclaimer here before we dive in, all of this is just my opinion and my interpretation of a piece of art. You can never assume a singer believes every word of every song they write or that they are speaking through their own voice or about their own lives. Just as an author who writes in the POV of a psychopath is not themselves a psychopath, we have to use some critical thinking and recognise that Taylor Swift is creating and not necessarily letting you read her diary. We have seen her do this before, most notably in folklore and evermore; ‘this is me trying’, ‘last great american dynasty’, ‘no body no crime’ etc. Assume from now on that when I say “she” in reference to a lyric, I am referring to the character or literary voice Swift is inhabiting. With that said, I hope you enjoy what will inevitably become the long, impassioned ramblings of a girl who is smack bang at the intersect of poetry lover and swiftie.

Intertextuality; A brief glimpse into her mastermind

Perhaps you have heard it said that Taylor Swift is a mastermind. I am here to confirm that and to present you with piles of genius. It is fair to say that TTPD is a rich text.

Intertextuality - for anyone who’s not familiar - is when one work of literature references another work of literature. This is not anything new for Taylor Swift; most famously ‘Love Story’ from Fearless, is a reimagining of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Something similar happens in 1989's 'Wonderland' which is laced with Alice in Wonderland references. She is also not opposed to referencing the more obscure as she's grown up and her reading has inevitably expanded. For example, I remain convinced that when she calls herself a “monster” in ‘Anti Hero’ an describes herself “slowly lurching towards your favourite city”, it is a play on the Yeats line “rough beast [...] slouches towards Bethlehem''. Moments of intertextuality like this crop up all over TTPD. I am sure there are many more that will have gone over my head or different people will interpret differently, but here are a few of my favourites! Please comment any others you noticed I would love to hear! 

TTPD references a number of significant literary figures from Dylan Thomas of ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’ and Patti Smith of Just Kids, to what some are suggesting to be Sylvia Plath allegories in ‘The Manuscript’. ‘So Long, London’ is full of references to British culture such as “I kept calm and carried the weight of the rift” in reference to the popular wartime motto “Keep Calm and Carry On”. But it is also the first wee intertextuality revelation I had! The line “my spine split from carrying us up the hill” really reminds me of the Greek myth of Sisyphus, who was sentenced to spend eternity carrying a boulder up a mountain on his back only to have it roll to the bottom and be forced to start again. Suggesting, perhaps, that bearing the brunt of their relationship started to feel like celestial punishment. Continuing with the theme of Greek mythology it only makes sense to discuss ‘Cassandra’. As the name suggests, Swift is doing another ‘Love Story’ style reimagining of a classic story but this time with the Greek mythological figure; Cassandra. Cassandra was a priestess who upset the god Apollo. He punished her by giving her the gift of divine sight but cursing her never to be believed which ultimately drove her mad. In Swift's reimagining, she depicts a woman being persecuted by the town for suspecting some dangerous threat among them. I have heard some people theorising this could also be a reference to Sylvia Plath and Ted Hughes relationship, and how Ted Hughes subsequent partner also killed herself. Although I don’t know enough to comment on that, it is still an interesting point to consider and you can read a blog post about that here. Swift is also undoubtedly drawing on her own experiences of not being believed throughout her career. Most notably with the assault by a radio DJ, the Kim and Kanye West drama, and Scooter Braun’s outrageous behaviour, while ultimately telling the truth about all three. Swift speaks here for women everywhere who are speaking out and not only not being believed, but being actively punished. It calls to mind the Me Too movement, feminist movements fighting the Taliban and all the women before, during, since and, still to come that will not be listened to. Her frustration is palpable. “When it’s ‘Burn the Bitch’ they’re shrieking / when the truth comes out it’s quiet”. The feeling of desertion. The lack of satisfaction you feel on being proved right because it’s too late. She asks us of this trauma; “What if it becomes who you are?”. It is a symptom of a deeply rotten society that the women of Greek mythology share much the same obstacles as we do today.

There are actually a LOT of biblical references in TTPD, so much so that religion has earned itself a whole chapter to be discussed as a theme, and the bible might need to be credited as a co-writer, so I’ll try to keep it brief here. In ‘Guilty as Sin’ we get practically the whole Easter story, with the stone being rolled away and the crucifixion being perhaps the most obvious reference, but the imagery appears throughout mostly with references to god, praying, sin, and snakes. For example, in ‘The Prophecy’ Swift returns to the ‘Mad Woman’ imagery of folklore with lines like “I got cursed like Eve got bitten / Oh was it punishment?” suggesting that perhaps when we have Eve as one of the oldest ways to understand femininity in the western world, we will always be punished and mistrusted. Greek mythology is also present here with “even statues crumble if they’re made to wait” which could be referencing the way Zeus waited so long in Olympia that he turned to stone and crumbled away. Are we perhaps also seeing a sleeping beauty reference here? “Poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand”. Or are we back to crucifixion? The jury is out but I sense something there…

Speaking of fairy tales we can’t ignore the use of J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan in ‘Peter’ which feels to me like a follow up to folklore’s ‘cardigan’ - “Tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy”. Swift uses the classic children’s story to explore an imagined relationship where a woman decides to stop waiting for an old love to come back for her. This is probably the most explicit use of intertextuality in TTPD, but it is still a lot of fun with lines like “Lost to the lost boys chapter of your life” and “The woman who sits by the window has turned out the light”. Featuring another fun Patti Smith reference; “preserved from when we were just kids”. Delicious. ‘I Hate it Here’ is strewn with references to The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett. This song is how I imagine a young Taylor in small town America might have felt; “I hate it here so I will go to secret gardens in my mind / People need a key to get there / The only one is mine / I read about it in a book when I was a precocious child”. I remember being desperate to have my own secret garden when I was young. A perfect beautiful place just for yourself, untouchable to the outside world. There is also a reference to wishing she lived in the 1830s which I have seen a lot of people say is slightly random. That’s where they’re wrong! That’s the thing with Miss Swift; it’s never random. The 1830s is slap bang in the middle of the romanticism period because she’s always been a hopeless romantic. Double delicious. Onto the last of the children’s literature references and by far my favourite. ‘How Did it End’ is one of my favourite songs on TTPD and absolutely heartbreaking. It details the pain of having to tell the people around you that a relationship has ended when you still don’t understand what happened yourself. The feeling of vultures circling your freshly departed relationship with “empathetic hunger”. In true Taylor fashion it comes complete with a bridge that rips your heart right out. My favourite moment is this subversion of the nursery rhyme, “sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G” which becomes; “my beloved ghost and me / sitting in a tree / D-Y-I-N-G”. Triple delicious - now with a hint of tears.

‘The Bolter’ is another interesting reimagining of a character; Amy March of Alcott’s Little Women. Amy of course famously falls through the ice after an argument with Jo, which for me is the biggest link to ‘The Bolter’ with the lines; “By all accounts she almost drowned” and “It feels like the time she fell through the ice / Then came out alive”. The descriptions that she has “a quite bewitching face” and is “splendidly selfish / charmingly helpless” also feel very reminiscent of Amy to me. ‘The Bolter’ is what Amy could have been in the modern day. Her desire to travel and have adventures that manifest in a trip to Europe in Little Women but are curbed by the need to marry, are front and centre here. We hear that “she’s been many places” and finds “escape in escaping”, knowing “she must bolt”. It is most satisfying to imagine Amy March having “the best stories” as “all her fucking lives flash before eyes”. Florence Pugh’s Amy would be delighted to have such freedom.

Last but not least we arrive at ‘The Albatross’. Full disclosure I was not familiar with Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s The Rime of the Ancient Mariner but the albatross is the key metaphor there and it is said to be deeply connected with the sailor’s superstition that to kill an Albatross will bring disaster to everyone on board the ship. Contrastingly, in real life, albatross are very romantic birds who mate for life. That juxtaposition is here in ‘The Albatross’ influencing the metaphor in full force. In ‘The Albatross’ Swift personifies herself as the bird implying that she promises both full devotion and the risk of “terrible danger” if you harm her. Another wee easter egg for long time fans, albatross (albatrosses? albatrossi? albatrosseses?) can fly for six years before they have to return to land which is exactly how long Swift’s relationship with Joe Alwyn lasted. I told you, mastermind.

In true Taylor Swift mastermind style, many of her songs relate to each other and have running motifs. We’ve seen this many times through her career with “the girl in the dress” and colour comparisons; ‘Red’ to ‘Daylight’ among many others. In TTPD - the album of intertextuality - therefore, it is no surprise that the references are coming thick and fast. Starting off strong with ‘Fortnight’ where the first line continues on from the last verse of the last song on Midnights; ‘Hits Different’. “Have they come to take me away” is picked up again here with “I was supposed to be sent away but they forgot to come and get me”. This is not a very sophisticated analysis but isn’t that just so cool! Okay increased sophistication to follow. 

Track fives are famously the heart wrenching ballads on Swift albums and ‘So Long, London’ about her recent breakup with Joe Alwyn does not disappoint. This song references many love songs Swift wrote for him, who I would argue is one of the only people with a fully dedicated song on this album. It is actually so personally devastating to me to hear some of my favourite love songs progress to tragic heartbreak laments. The altar they worshipped their love on in ‘False God’ becomes the altar Taylor dies on waiting for the proof of love here. The strongest link is potentially with the Midnights vault song; ‘You’re Losing Me’ with both tracks featuring the same heartbeat in the background. Although importantly, the heartbeat sound is much quieter now, as if her heart is finally giving up and the beats are fading away. The heart imagery comes again with CPR references. “I can’t find a pulse / My heart won’t start anymore for you” in ‘You’re Losing Me’ progresses to “I stopped CPR after all it’s no use” in ‘So Long, London’. From being the king of her heart, to losing her to final goodbye; ‘So Long, London’ acknowledges what a long time she loved him, how hard she tried and how hard it is to finally say good bye after so long. The ever sweet imagery of ‘Paper Rings’ takes on a ghostly feeling in ‘Fresh out the Slammer’ with “We used to sit on children’s swings / Wearing imaginary rings”, and in ‘loml’ where he “Shit-talked me under the table / Talking rings and talking cradles”. I just love the development of a specific image or motif so much it really gives you an insight into how Swift’s feelings develop over time. The last one I spied on this theme is the tragic way Swift proved herself right from ‘Cornelia Street’ to ‘loml’ where “I hope it never ends [...] that’s the kind of heart break time could never mend” becomes the story of how the “love of [her] life” turned into the “loss of [her] life”. These parallels are so satisfying for long time fans that are deep into her catalogue.

‘The Manuscript’, is an examination of Swift’s art and writing process and I would suggest that she uses the example of ‘All Too Well’ to exemplify how art becomes an independent entity after you release it. All Too Well, in my opinion, is the ultimate fan favourite. It was never a single, never widely acclaimed or known outside the fan base but always dear to our hearts. Before the ten minute version even came out, it was an entity of its own. Earning years of rumours and adoration before we had ever heard it. In the biography Taylor Swift: Era by Era, Caroline Sullivan notes Swift saying “the fans just among themselves decided it was their favourite. They just sort of [...] claimed it as the most important song from Red [...] This song has turned into a story of what the fans did”. Although it is not named, I think ‘All Too Well’ is the story she is referencing in her manuscript. It is her legacy. With lines such as “In the age of him she wished she was thirty” and “He said she was so wise beyond her years”, it is reminiscent of the sentiments in ‘All Too Well’; “He said if I had been older then it would have been fine / That made me want to die”. Furthermore, the line “The actors were hitting their marks [...] the tears fell in synchronicity with the score / And at last / She knew what the agony had been for”, which I think is in reference to the making of the ‘All Too Well’ short film. I think ‘All Too Well’ is the story that means the most to so many people. It empathises and relates to their hurt in ways much more raw than it probably does even for Taylor now so many years later. That is her manuscript.

The motif of ‘Mad Woman’ predates even the song of that title. The mad woman, the snakes and the witch hunts have been something Swift has been interested in since her reputation days when she herself faced that treatment. ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me’ takes the ‘Mad Woman’ to a new level and builds on the imagery of Reputation. “You’ll poke that bear till her claws come out / And you find something to wrap your noose around” is almost directly referenced here. The image of the taunted bear is developed into Swift being “caged” in the “circus life” and proclaiming “they took out all her teeth”. From the noose being round her neck we now see her “leap from the gallows” and “levitate down your street”. She plays up to the villain character asking “Who’s afraid of little old me? Well you should be”. I adore the commitment to female rage. It is such a spectacle of a song. It kind of feels like the rage and character building of reputation had a baby with the poetry of folklore. I was recently lucky enough to attend two Eras concerts and the power behind ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me’ was absolutely incredible. The Reputation imagery of snakes and the villainous woman is referenced again in ‘Cassandra’, as I previously mentioned, which reimagines the Greek myth of Cassandra and Apollo, ending with Cassandra’s persecution. In reference to her own work however, the imagery in ‘Cassandra’ of a woman being stoned, cells filled with snakes is very reminiscent of Reputation. TTPD and it seems Taylor Swift are not quite finished with their interest in the fates of “mad” women.

What it means to be an artist; The Clara Bow effect

‘The Manuscript’, while not being one of the powerhouses of the album, is nonetheless integral to the story of the anthology. The final song of the album, ‘The Manuscript’ is one of the moments when Taylor’s own voice seems the most clear and bare to me. The characters of the Tortured Poet’s Department are shed and we hear her softly and subdued, but true. Yet she uses the third person until the very last verse. ‘The Manuscript’ is an exploration of how the art becomes detached from the artist and what that means. When an artist puts something out into the world and people interact with it and understand it in different ways, that art takes on a new form. Art and music becomes multi-faceted as different people take it into themselves. It becomes a conversation between that person and the words, they integrate their own interpretations, preconceived ideas and experiences to create something new. As I mentioned, I believe ‘The Manuscript’ hones in on ‘All Too Well’ as an example and when I look at ‘All Too Well’ with this lens the first thing I think of is the scarf. The scarf is a very important motif in ‘All Too Well’ that fans have decided represents virginity. This is something Swift has never confirmed but it doesn’t matter. Almost every swiftie will agree that the scarf represents virginity. So does it then come true? Is that canon? That idea exists in the public psyche. So who’s to say that shared interpretation is wrong. That is the separation of art and artist I’m trying to get into. Swift also examines what art does for her; “Looking backwards might be the only way to move forward” and discusses how the creation of music helps her to process the “agony” of her life. In the final lines Swift acknowledges the final result of that healing process; “Now and then I re-read the manuscript, but the story isn’t mine anymore”. This song gives us not only an insight into Swift’s experience of song writing and how she feels about her art being outside of her control, but also a clue as to how to understand this album. This song takes place in a creative writing class, paired with the prologue on the vinyl edition which says “I stand before my fellow members of the Tortured Poets Department / With a summary of my findings [...] My veins of pitch black ink / All’s fair in love and poetry / Sincerely the chairman of the tortured poets department” leads me to conclude that much of this record is spiralling inky poetry, penned with a quill. Swift’s “findings” written with her most beautiful, savage, cutting, loving, frank and false voices. She can swap them like shiny new pairs of shoes. It is a joy to digest the work of such an artist. 

Taylor Swift is undeniably at the height of pop culture relevance. Starring in the biggest tour that ever toured, she is drawing hundreds of thousands of fans to new cities and countries in pursuit of a much coveted ticket to The Eras Tour. I recently went to two of her Edinburgh concerts and I can confirm that they far surpassed my expectations. I actually may never recover. She was powerful, stunning, sparkling and absolutely hitting her marks. She has officially reached icon status. But that’s the thing, under the sparkling shell of every icon is a person wrought with worries, anger and anxieties that can be crippling. There are points in this album where Swift draws back the veil and gives us a glimpse into how she perceives herself and navigates her stardom. This is done most explicitly in ‘Clara Bow’ and ‘I Can Do it With a Broken Heart’. ‘Clara Bow’ is a very meta investigation into the creation and downfall of the starlet. Clara Bow was literally the original “it girl”, a film star in the 1920s and 30s she starred in the 1927 film It making her the first woman in a long line to be given the title of the “it girl”. Like many celebrities over the years, she was a victim of the tabloids, painted as a drug-crazed sex symbol with a riotously outrageous personal life. Just six years after It came out, Bow retired from acting and became a reclusive rancher in Nevada where she lived with her husband for the rest of her life. Through Bow’s image, with reference to other starlets like Stevie Nicks, Swift examines the pressure on young women in the public eye to “dazzle” and “be picked”, and the constant comparison to other female artists. The line “It’s hell on earth to be heavenly” emphasises the pain and struggle that go into creating this picture perfect heavenly image. She also touches on the pressure on women to stay young perpetually; “Only when your girlish glow / Flickers just so”. The way older women are perceived is also seen in ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me’ with an almost Miss Havisham-esque image with her “house with all the cobwebs” and being “drunk on [her] own tears”. The image of pain is developed in ‘Clara Bow’ with the shifting refrains of “I think I might die if it happened to me” and “I think I might die if I made it”, suggesting that stardom, and it girl status are both the things she wants so much she would die for them, and the thing that could kill her if they go wrong. There is one particularly striking moment in the final lines of ‘Clara Bow’ when she sings “You look like Taylor Swift / In this light / We’re loving it / You’ve got edge she never did / The future’s bright… dazzling”. Once I got over the excitement of hearing Swift say her own name, I could fully appreciate what was going on there. She recognises that she is reaching the age where women are suddenly not the young new thing. Their girlish glow has become suspiciously … womanish. They can no longer be an it girl, they have become women. Women with success and money. The patriarchy’s nightmare. We feel Swift’s anxiety here, is her time coming to an end? Is she feeling the threat of newer younger artists? Is her time to shine somewhat dimming? I would argue that it is most certainly not. She’s only 34 and frankly she’s slaying. But I am not surprised that these are anxieties and questions Swift has. Twenty years of trying to be the perfect girl for the music industry is no doubt exhausting. 

‘I Can Do It With A Broken Heart’ is a fascinating song. It is immediately a bop (obviously) but it is also genius. Almost parodying the upbeat electro pop sounds of Midnights, Swift gives us a sneak peek into what was really going on in the early days of the Eras Tour when she was going through potentially the most painful break up of her life. The fourth wall is not so much broken as destroyed. She directly addresses the fans; “I can read your mind / She’s having the time of her life”, the chorus is littered with direct references to the Eras Tour with her stage manager’s voice featuring in the pre chorus counting her in to perform, she is “hitting her marks”, she speaks explicitly about how it feels to be the lowest you have ever been and having the responsibility to thousands of fans screaming “MORE!” every night. This is a rare moment of career vulnerability for Swift. Emotional vulnerability she has offered to us many times over her career but showing us the cracks in her identity as a performer that she is frantically stitching back together is something new indeed. Not to be misconstrued as a critique of the fans or a complaint about having to perform, but rather a tongue in cheek almost satirical reflection of how hard she worked to keep her heart together and keep getting up on stage in a truly devastating time for her. In an online world where parasocial relationships are rife, Swift's decides to show the fans that they do not, and cannot know everything about her personal life. That while she appreciates them very much, this is a job, and even the most privileged and yearned for jobs come with their challenges. It offers an alternative view to the invincible shiny perfect starlet image, which I found very refreshing. Getting to see what one of the most famous artists in the world thinks about her fame and how she reconciles that with her daily life and fragile human sou was fascinating. 

Considering Religion; A crisis of her faith

Taylor Swift has always been openly religious, identifying as Christian, which should be no surprise as she was born in Pennsylvania and moved to Tennessee in her teens, the latter of which is in the Bible Belt. She has also referenced her religion multiple times throughout her discography. For example, in ‘Our Song’ she says “and when I got home / ‘Fore I said Amen / Asking God if he could play it again”, in ‘The Best Day’ she says “God smiles on my little brother”. While I don’t think the complexity of her religious beliefs can possibly be summed up by a few lines in a few songs, it is fair to see that both of these examples show a fairly comfortable and positive relationship with Christianity. However, as we move forward through the catalogue and come across songs such as ‘False God’ and most notably, ‘Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve’, it seems there are potentially some rising tensions between Swift and her religion. This is mirrored by her comments in the documentary Miss Americana where she is dismayed at the election of an extremely conservative republican politician who is claiming to represent “Tennessee Christian values”, “I’m from Tennessee, I’m a Christian, that’s not what we stand for” she insists. With that brief and extremely simplified background information, what we find in the Tortured Poets Department is perhaps not as much of a pivot as it first seems. It is however, the first time Swift seems to be openly critiquing certain aspects of Christianity or Christian communities which is something I find deeply interesting. I am not for one second suggesting she is renouncing her faith, but we are certainly being shown the nuance of belief, a questioning and confidence to dissect and employ a lot of prominent religious imagery. Again, I do not assume that anything I quote and analyse necessarily represents her own beliefs or experiences, this is just an artistic investigation.

Religious imagery is littered throughout TTPD, with references to Eve in ‘The Prophecy’, prayers and Christian chorus lines in ‘Cassandra’, sacrifices and the return of altar imagery in ‘So Long, London’ among many others. It is clear that the vast richness of images, stories and icons of religion is something Swift is keenly tuned into. The two songs that I think confront the structures of religion the most directly are ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ and ‘Guilty as Sin’. They are explicit, barbed and agonised in their messages.  

Swift does not shy away from employing some big religious images to explore her ideas. Up until now she had been somewhat reserved, even in ‘Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve’ where she was diving into some deep personal trauma and how that affected her relationship to religion, she stayed somewhat restrained mostly focusing on the physical bounds she has with religion in this world. The physicality of praying on her knees, the tangible aspects of religious sites, the church, the altar and the stained glass windows. In this album however, she really sinks her teeth into it. Magnifying her experiences to the quasi-divine in ‘Guilty as Sin’ she imagines herself inhabiting the body of Christ at the point of crucifixion and subsequently resurrection; “What if I roll the stone away? They’re gonna crucify me anyway.” It is a bold move indeed to take one of the most influential and significant religious stories of the western world and break it down to serve your own self expression. To me, this signifies a sense of Swift’s command over her religion. The knowledge that it is hers, something she is a part of and therefore something she can choose to question, deconstruct and reform as she sees fit. Not a tool to control her, but a tool she can use to make sense of herself and the world. In the same vein, ‘Guilty as Sin’ appears to me to be a critique of the way sexuality is demonised in conservative Christianity. The song is rife with religious imagery and a particular focus on defining sin. In some sects of Christianity, young people are taught that even to imagine sexual gratification or acknowledging their own desires is a sin. Swift challenges this when she asks “Without ever touching his skin, how can I be guilty as sin?”. The image of the cage of conformity is pushed against throughout as she becomes more enraptured with the idea of intimacy with her unnamed lover. These doubts ultimately culminate as she dares to voice the question “What if the way he holds me is actually what’s holy?”. The bravery to even think something like that in a community so focussed on restraint is radical. This repression is exemplified with Swift’s final remark “Am I allowed to cry?”. Even her tears are outside of the realm of her autonomy. 

I won’t linger too long on ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ because I also have a lot to say about that through the lens of gendered perceptions. BUT! This is still a significant song in terms of religious commentary. Swift looks at the constraints of living in a town of people veiling their judgements and critiques under the guise of well meaning religious guidance. She begins to doubt their motives and it seems we join her just as she has experienced a revelation of sorts; “I just learned these people only raise you, to cage you”, later clarifying that “these people” are “in their Sunday best”, “the elders” and accuses them of being “sanctimonious” and claim to be trying to “save you”. The implication therefore, appears to be that Swift is critiquing conservative Christians who are overbearing towards the young people in their communities. This is solidified by Swift's assurance to these people that “you ain’t gotta pray for me”. The country melody harks back to Swift’s early days and calls to mind the landscapes of small town America. A dialogue then, is being created here. A direct confrontation between the people insisting that they control and judge you so savagely in attempts to “save you”, and a young woman turning around and rejecting that mode of thinking. Saying with clarity and a sureness of self that she knows their actions come from hate but most importantly, that her “good name” is hers “to disgrace”. A powerful reclaiming of autonomy and the permission to make mistakes in the pursuit of desire. 

Gendered perceptions; The last great American disparity

A large chunk of this album is devoted to examining the massively gendered reactions and perceptions she has faced and witnessed, and the disparity in consequences faced by men and women. I have heard a lot of discussions suggesting that ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ is about her short lived relationship with Matty Healy. I would tend to disagree. Mainly because I don’t think this is an album that benefits from assigning one man to every song. It negates her ability to imagine and create, and also just the power of her own voice in each song. Every  song is a Taylor Swift song not a Joe song or a Matty song etc. However, in my opinion, the media storm that raged throughout Taylor and Matty’s relationship, and is essentially the reason it ended, was insanely gendered. For those of you not in the know, Matty Healy is a bit rogue, says and does some crazy and questionable things, and is generally not a very nice man. So what happened? Everyone accused Taylor Swift of being a terrible person for associating with him. About a thousand times more intensely than anyone has ever actually critiqued Healy. It is a tale as old as time for the responsibility for men’s bad behaviour to be slumped onto the women in their lives. As if they should “know better”. I think ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ is Swift pushing back against that narrative and advocating for women to be given space to make mistakes and pursue their desires outside of what is expected of them. The question of responsibility for bad behaviour rises to the surface again in ‘I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)’ where Swift explores the trope (and often reality) of women in relationships with men whom (if I used whom correctly I would like a gold star) they know are terrible people, but feel a responsibility to fix. I think it is this experience, and the sense of injustice I can only assume Swift felt, that inspired this song. But I don’t think the man is Healy. As I touched on previously, ‘But Daddy I Love Him’ explores a young woman facing pressure from her conservative Christian town to leave the man she loves. This song very much feels like Swift’s response to the disproportionate criticism and blame she faced at the time. She has had a “good girl” image for a very long time and she seems to be rejecting that when she says; “I’ll tell you something about my good name / It’s mine alone to disgrace” and “I’d rather burn my whole life down / Than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning”. Quite powerfully here, Swift is making it clear that she wants to be in control of her own life. To have autonomy. To be free to pursue her desires and not be held to such rigid rules, to be morally untouchable. To have the freedom to be as selfish and riotous as many popular male celebrities are. Or at the very least be allowed to make some mistakes, to make some choices that don’t align exactly with how people expect her to act.

The idea of men getting away with diabolical behaviour and facing no consequences is not a new topic for Swift but ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ is so slap you in the face gutting in its exploration of the issue that it needs to be re-examined. I think all we need to look at here is the bridge which I will include in full because it is stunning;

Were you sent by someone who wanted me dead?

Did you sleep with a gun underneath our bed?

Were you writing a book, were you a sleeper cell spy?

In fifty years will all this be declassified?

And you’ll confess why you did it and I’ll say good riddance

Cause it wasn’t sexy once it wasn’t forbidden

I would’ve died for your sins, instead I just died inside

And you deserve prison but you won’t get time

You’ll slide into inboxes and slip through the bars

You crashed my party and your rental car

You said normal girls were boring but you were gone by the morning

You kicked out the stage lights but you’re still performing

And in plain sight you hid

But you are what you did

And I’ll forget you, but I’ll never forgive

The smallest man who ever lived 

An amalgamation of every powerful man whose life is littered with wrongdoings and immoralities yet continues to stand front and centre in the public eye. All the people with allegations, settled lawsuits, reputations, and ‘outdated attitudes’ that are used to excuse every categorically inappropriate misstep. ‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ is richly stewed in female rage. The injustice echoes in every word and demands to be heard, not in a plea to rekindle anything, but because angry women deserve to be heard. 

A trip to the ye olde americana; No one likes a mad woman

Sandwiched between the heart breaking ‘So long, London’ and ‘loml’ we arrive at what I am calling the ye olde americana section. At this point we enter a more explicitly fantastical less autobiographical set of songs. In my opinion they are all set in the same imaginary world; of which we know Swift has many. Kind of like the teenage love triangle or ‘no body no crime’, they feel particularly imaginative and can benefit from being considered as such. I would argue that this collection of songs are all about the same imaginary character. Chronologically I would order them like this;

• Guilty as Sin

• But Daddy I love him

• I can fix him (no really I can)

• Florida

• Fresh out the slammer

• Who’s afraid of little old me

I’m not suggesting this is what Swift intended but this is how I imagine it. The story goes like this, a girl in a small conservative town is falling in love with a bad boy. It begins with late night fantasising and imagining their relationship (Guilty as Sin). They get together, to the dismay and warnings of the town (But Daddy I Love Him), and she ultimately finds that he’s not as perfect as she thinks he is (I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)). He leads her down a dark path until she is on the run to Florida (Florida!!!), however she ultimately goes down for his crimes and goes to jail for him but goes running right back to him when she gets out (Fresh Out the Slammer). In a tale as old as time, the terrible man never gets less terrible and many years later we meet the angry wreck of a woman she has become (Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me). This is highly embellished and mostly exists in my imagination but I think there’s something there and it’s a fun game to play! Honestly if you play them in that order it really fits my narrative. The imagery of small town, prohibition type of a wild west saloon vibe is consistent throughout. The modernity of songs like ‘Down Bad’ are nowhere to be seen here. Instead we have; Sunday best, elders, writing letters, the slammer, hiding bodies in swamps, locks, crucifixion, gallows, scandals, the circus, asylums, smoky bars… you get the vibe. Getting back to how this narrative of a woman slowly going mad and failing to meet societal expectations connects more tangibly to the real world, I turn my attention to ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me’. Swift’s much loved motif of the mad woman is taken to new heights here as she imagines a woman driven mad by the ways she has been caged, restrained and gawped at all her life. Not unlike Swift herself. In an almost demonic turn Swift gives us the image of herself leaping from the gallows and levitating down the street to exact her revenge. The image of her being crucified, or otherwise punished for crimes she was never guilty of, has been a recurring theme throughout her albums since the Reputation days, but this reanimation strikes a new tone. In previous work it has been an image to emphasise the absurdity of female prosecution, here it is almost like the chance she has been waiting for to strike back. The ghostly imagery combined with Swift’s manic and haunting vocals create a powerful atmosphere I believe we have never heard from her before. This is the ‘Mad Woman’ in all her savage vengeful glory.

My favourite lyrics: Picked like a rose

As I have already established, this is an album overflowing with poetic imagery and frankly divine lyrics. Here are a few of my favourites that deserve their own moments of appreciation.

All your indecent exposures / How dare you say that it’s -

You say I abandoned the ship / But I was going down with it

You swore that you loved me / But where were the clues? / I died on the altar waiting for the proof

What if I roll the stone away? / They’re gonna crucify me anyway

I felt a hole like this / never before, and ever since

You shit talked me under the table / Talking rings and talking cradles / I wish I could unrecall / How we almost had it all

Literally the whole ‘Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’ bridge… you know… we’ve discussed

And I sound like an infant / Feeling like the very last drops of an ink pen / A greater woman stays cool / But I howl like a wolf at the moon

A touch that was my birthright became foreign

The empathetic hunger descends / We’ll tell no one except all of our friends / We must know / How did it end?

Say it once again with feeling / How the death rattle breathing / Silenced as the soul was leaving / The deflation of our dreaming / Leaving me bereft and reeling / My beloved ghost and me / Sitting in a tree / D-Y-I-N-G

Cross your thoughtless heart / Only liquor anoints you

A feather taken by the wind blowing / I’m afflicted by the not knowing

Slow is the quicksand / Poison blood from the wound of the pricked hand

Cards on the table / Mine played out like fools in a fable

Blood’s thick but nothing like a payroll

With a quite bewitching face / Splendidly selfish / Charmingly selfish

If you are still reading what is now verging on a dissertation thank you SO MUCH! I hope you enjoyed this, whether you’re a swiftie who already loved The Tortured Poet’s Department or someone who was intrigued and considering dipping in (surely I’ve convinced you by now and you haven’t dipped you’ve dived!). I had a lot of fun writing this and getting even deeper than I usually do into a Taylor Swift album. Regular bookish content will be back soon. Thanks for sticking around!

Love, Grace xx

Sources Consulted

Debut by Taylor Swift

Fearless (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift

Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift

Red (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift

1989 (Taylor's Version) by Taylor Swift

Reputation by Taylor Swift

Lover by Taylor Swift

Folklore by Taylor Swift

Evermore by Taylor Swift

Midnights by Taylor Swift

The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology by Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift: Miss Americana, Netflix, 2020.

Sullivan, Caroline. Taylor Swift: Era by Era. Michael O’Mara; 2024.

Yeats, W. B., ‘The Second Coming’, The Collected Poems of W. B. Yeats, 1989.

Barrie, J. M., Peter Pan, 1911.

Alcott, Louisa May., Little Women, 1868.

Hodgeson Burnett, Frances., The Secret Garden, 1911.