By Leo Su
Last week, Taylor Swift surprised our COVID-19 ravaged world by releasing folklore, her eighth studio album, with less than a day’s notice. With its sparser, mellower production and its focus on imagery, the album confirmed what many already knew—that Taylor’s biggest strength lies in her songwriting. The songs on folklore shine in their ability to tell a story. They paint pictures in vivid detail and encapsulate the most complex of emotions with ease.
But if you listen closely—past the twangy banjos or dobros of her earlier tracks or the bombastic Max Martin/Shellback influences on her later hits—you’ll be able to notice that this has been the case throughout her entire discography.
As a diehard Swiftie, it brings me no greater joy than to collate together these moments of lyrical genius. Whether it’s through rhetorical devices, figurative language, or visceral imagery, there is no lack of finesse in the way Taylor pens her words. Here are some of Taylor Swift’s most poetic lyrics from her songs thus far.
1. “You call me up again just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of being honest” – All Too Well (Red)
Arguably overquoted but extremely powerful nevertheless. This particular line comes during the climax of the song, in all of its evocative and cathartic glory. Simply stunning.
2. “I guess it's true that love was all you wanted / 'Cause you're giving it away like it's extra change / Hoping it will end up in his pocket / But he leaves you out like a penny in the rain” –Tied Together With A Smile (Taylor Swift)
Even during her earliest stages of songwriting, Taylor dished out metaphors with proficiency and flair.
PSA: Taylor’s self-titled debut album is an immensely underrated masterpiece. There’s a reason why it’s my personal favourite (well, besides the fact that I’m a huge country music fan in general).
3. “So I’ll go sit on the floor wearing your clothes / All that I know is I don’t know how to be something you miss” – Last Kiss (Speak Now)
This cuts deep.
4. “Take the words for what they are / A dwindling, mercurial high / A drug that only worked / The first few hundred times” – illicit affairs (folklore)
Emotionally charged and imbued with complexity.
5. “I'd tell you I miss you but I don't know how / I've never heard silence quite this loud” – The Story of Us (Speak Now)
Ughhhh…as cliché as it may be, I’m a sucker for a good oxymoron.
6. “I run my fingers through your hair and watch the lights go wild / Just keep on keeping your eyes on me, it’s just wrong enough to make it feel right” – Sparks Fly (Speak Now)
Ditto.
7. “Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you've never met” – Red (Red)
The entire song Red is a poetic paragon filled with figurative language but there’s something special about this line. The juxtaposition between forgetting and knowing. The way which one single phrase can so effectively convey the utter frustration and impossibility of trying to get over a relationship that has marked you indelibly.
8. “My heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue / All's well that ends well to end up with you” – Lover (Lover)
Taylor really outdid herself with the bridge of this song which is romantic enough to warm the coldest of hearts.
9. “You paint me a blue sky then go back and turn it to rain / And I lived in your chess game but you changed the rules everyday” – Dear John (Speak Now)
I could include all of the lyrics from Dear John on this list if I wanted to. The whole song is a poetic masterpiece.
10. “So you were never a saint and I loved in shades of wrong / We learn to live with the pain, mosaic broken hearts” – State of Grace (Red)
Same can be said about State of Grace.
11. “But I got smarter, I got harder in the nick of time / Honey, I rose up from the dead I do it all the time” – Look What You Made Me Do (reputation)
People are often so caught up with the cynical and electroclash sound of Look What You Made Me Do that they overlook the imagery in the lyrics. I mean, there’s just something so poetic about rising up after the death of your past self.
And fun fact: this song started out as a poem Taylor wrote.
12. “People are people and sometimes we change our minds / But it's killing me to see you go after all this time” – Breathe (Fearless)
So simple yet so true.
13. “And you come away with a great little story / Of a mess of a dreamer with the nerve to adore you” – Cold as You (Taylor Swift)
The delivery of this line wrenches my heart every time I listen to it.
14. “They told me all of my cages were mental / So I got wasted like all my potential” – this is me trying (folklore)
Firstly, what an elegant way to describe getting inebriated. Secondly, I’m trying to figure out what technique this is in addition to simile. Zeugma? Double entendre? Paraprosdokian? Whatever it is, it works.
15. “Back to a first-glance feeling on New York Time / Back when you fit in my poems like a perfect rhyme” – Holy Ground (Red)
The same way Taylor’s lyrics fit into her songs like a perfect rhyme.
16. “It was months and months of back and forth / You’re still all over me like a wine-stained dress I can’t wear anymore” – Clean (1989)
The imagery in Clean is mesmerising.
17. “And time is taking its sweet time erasing you” – Sad Beautiful Tragic (Red) AND “Time, mystical time / Cutting me open, then healing me fine” – invisible string (folklore)
Couldn’t resist listing these two marvellous phrases with each other.
18. “You tell me about your past thinking your future was me” – All Too Well (Red)
If this doesn’t scream poetic, I don’t know what does.
19. “I can see you starin', honey / Like he's just your understudy" – exile (folklore)
A very theatrical way of describing your ex seeing you in a new relationship.
20. “And I can still see it all in my head / Back and forth from New York sneaking in your bed / I once believed love would burning red / But it’s golden, like daylight” – Daylight (Lover)
An intertextual reference to her earlier song Red illustrating her emotional journey and growth? Yes, please.
21. “You taught me a secret language I can't speak with anyone else / And you know damn well / For you, I would ruin myself” – illicit affairs (folklore)
Effective and so evocative.
22. “Wondering which version of you I might get on the phone tonight / Well I stopped picking up and this song is to let you know why” – Dear John (Speak Now)
How Goffmanian of you, Taylor. I love it.
23. “And all we are is skin and bone / Trained to get along / Forever going with the flow / But you’re friction” – Treacherous (Red)
Alluding to scientific concepts with artistic flair.
24. “Walking through a crowd, the village is aglow / Kaleidoscope of loud heartbeats under coats” – Welcome to New York (1989)
What a gorgeous line. Rich and vivid imagery to describe the New York City landscape.
25. “We gather here, we line up weeping in a sunlit room / And if I’m on fire, you’ll be made of ashes too” – my tears ricochet (folklore)
So much to unpack here. The elemental contrast between tears and fire. The funeral imagery. The blurred demarcation between literal and figurative. The pulsating undertone of mutually assured destruction.
And if you want to read more of Taylor’s words at their poetic best, be sure to check out the prologue to her album reputation as well as Why She Disappeared and If You’re Anything Like Me, the two poems she wrote during that same era.
