#taylor swift lyrical analysis

[paintedmered]

lyrical analysis of fortnight (ft. post malone) by taylor swift

disclaimers

my analysis will consider the album epilogue, in which taylor explains that her relationship with matty was 'not a love affair!' but a form of 'self-harm' stemming from a 'manic phase' as her relationship with joe disintegrated and then completely fell apart· it will take into account taylor saying matty 'love-bombed' her while feasting on 'low-hanging fruit'.

idc what matty stans think. i'm analysing taylor's perspective, not yours.

if you disagree with my interpretation, you don't need to attack me.

analysis!

based on taylor's amazon music commentary and my own interpretation of the song, fortnight seems to be a hypothetical future where she stays with joe and they get married, but he's not the person she's meant to be with. it picks up where hits different leaves off ('is it you or have they come to take me away?' / 'i was supposed to be sent away, but they forgot to come and get me') – after the break described in hits different, joe returned to her (it was his key in the door, after all) and they gave the relationship another try... but they shouldn't have. she needed out of it for the sake of her mental health. no one intervened, and she now wishes they had. saying they simply 'forgot' to come get her shows how she feels like she slipped through the cracks... (this also calls back to 'my friends found friends who care' from dear reader. she's been checked out with them, so they've been checked out with her.) a similar sentiment is given by 'i was a functioning alcoholic 'til nobody noticed my new aesthetic'. no one noticed how much she was struggling. now she feels more unwell than ever.

the relationship has progressed to the point that they're husband and wife, but their problems haven't been solved... he's cold towards her. he's cheating on her. (this represents the emotional cheating or weird almost-cheating that's implied elsewhere on the album to have actually happened ('he was with her in dreams' / 'fell victim to interloper's glances' / 'i founded the club she's heard great things about' / 'go home to their husbands, smug 'cause they know they can trust him') but also how she feels like his physical cheating is therefore inevitable in this hypothetical future.)

she wants another guy (matty), but he's also married to someone else now. she recalls/fantasises about a fortnight she spent with this guy (likely representing 2014, though whether it was literally or figuratively a fortnight is unclear – the point is that it was a short time). all her days are mondays (widely considered the worst day of the week) in an endless february (one of the coldest, most depressing months of the year) – her existence is merely something to endure. she 'loves' both men, but it's ruining her life. (one is unfaithful and keeps her trapped ('locks and ceilings' on fresh out the slammer), while the other makes her dream of destroying her life as she knows it...) she hates her cheating husband. she hates the other guy's perfectly nice wife. she feels insane and wants to kill someone.

taking the album epilogue into account, my reading of this is: fortnight was the fear – what she saw as the situation taken to its logical end if she didn't leave joe. matty whispered 'what if?' in her ear a lot when things were bad with joe, selling her the 'get-love-quick scheme' referred to in the epilogue – 'what if it's meant to be us? i've always wanted you. i've grown up. i'm ready to give you all the things you want that he won't give you!' ...and in her desperation, she thought, 'what if he's right? what if joe isn't my destined love? what if i stay with him just hoping things will be good again but they never are? what if i'm not meant to marry him anyway? what if i regret not taking a chance on this other guy, and he was meant to be the one all along?' (this is despite the fact that they were only ever involved very briefly in the past, possibly betraying that this 'love' is superficial. she's an unreliable narrator from the beginning of this record, and reality consistently slips through. she touched him for only a fortnight... still, she touched him. some important subtext here is that means she doesn't have to start all over with someone brand new...)

ultimately, she HAS to find out 'what if?'. so at the end of the song, she runs away to florida, buys the car this guy wants and lets him touch her again. there's a LOT of symbolism here: the car she thinks she's bought is actually the rental car he crashes in loml – it's not really hers, just something she uses for a short period of time. the setting of florida leads to the song florida, which contains the same/similar symbolism in the form of the 'timeshare down in destin'. the car is also a getaway car. it will only start up when she lets him touch her again because she's realised the only way to leave her relationship with joe and find out 'what if?' with matty is to actually just DO IT – to go be with him instead of just thinking about being with him (see also: guilty as sin?).

...the rest of the album is her realising she wishes she'd just left it alone ('it was unnecessary, should've let it stay buried' from loml). (this is also why the ivy/wcs mashup happened on tour, imo – he planted roots in her dreamland... but now that she knows, she wishes he'd left her wondering!)

- END -

analysis of other tracks coming soon?

[folksyswift]

I'm just a girl… I'm alone, on my own. No one wanted to play with me as a little kid, nobody ever lets me in. Something different bloomed writing in my room. I see the great escape, I play my songs in the parking lot just to learn that my dreams aren't rare. Maybe I'm just a girl on a mission but I'm ready to fly in the angel's city, chasing fortune and fame. No one in my small town thought I'd meet these suits in L.A. and the camera flashes make it look like a dream. The kind of radiance you only have at 17, making my own name, chasing that fame. The crown is stained, but you're the real queen selling dreams, selling make up and magazines and your secrets end up splashed on the news front page. No cameras catch my pageant smile and my cheeks are growing tired from turning red and faking smiles. They said, "Babe, you gotta fake it till you make it" and I did. Cause ladies always rise above, so I became the butt of the joke. Talk your talk and go viral 'cause, baby, I could build a castle out of all the bricks they threw at me. Crowd goes wild at her fingertips but there's robbers to the east, clowns to the west. I tried to pick my battles 'til the battle picked me. I was in the alley surrounded on all sides. Brought a knife to a gunfight. I looked around in a blood-soaked gown and tried to tell the town. You said the gun was mine, so they filled my cell with snakes. They say I did something bad then tell me I'm despicable. People look at me like I'm a monster. Now they're screaming that they hate me. I can feel the flames on my skin, and you find something to wrap your noose around. They're burning all the witches even if you aren’t one. So light me, and if I'm on fire, you'll be made of ashes too. So I leap from the gallows, and I levitate down your street. I didn't want to have to haunt you but I've got a list of names and yours is in red, underlined. They say, "move on", but all I think about is karma. I've come too far to watch some namedropping sleaze tell me what are my words worth. My pennies made your crown. You had to kill me, but it killed you just the same. The knife cuts both ways, look at how my tears ricochet. Them's the breaks, they don't come gently. It still hurts underneath my scars from when they pulled me apart, and I can go anywhere I want just not home. He's got my past frozen behind glass but I've got me. I’m still on that trapeze. I'm still trying everything to keep you looking at me. Lights, camera, bitch smile. I can still make the whole place shimmer. I pushed each boulder up the hill, climbed right back up the cliff 'cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned. Ask me why so many fade, but I'm still here. Always risin' from the ashes 'cause I'm a real tough kid, I can handle my shit. I gave my blood, sweat, and tears for this. And at last she knew what the agony had been for. I built a legacy that you can't undo. Long story short, I survived. You're on your own, kid. You always have been.

[agreyrose]

So in “Down Bad” the muse is an otherworldly being who picked Taylor up, showed her things she never seen before, changed her life forever, and then dropped her right back off because, again, they weren’t from this world and it wouldn’t be acceptable for them to be together in this world because people can’t/won’t understand it. But Taylor feels like if they were elsewhere, then it would be okay and she could be with this person. Hence why we get:

And as I pointed out in my other post, this is a running theme in her music. There’s so many examples of it it’s insane. Even off some of her earliest albums:

She’s always running away with her muse, out of sight because they taught her “a secret language” she “can’t speak with anyone else.” No one else around her understands her except the muse. So Taylor’s solution is always to run.

[noitsjusttaylor]

The heartbreak of The Prophecy

I believe The Prophecy is one of Taylor's most vulnerable songs... Here's why: an Analysis

She was going full speed, racing toward the goal she had set her sights on.

She believed that she had managed to achieve the impossible. Succeed in a feat that very few before her had done.

But before she could cross that finish line, everything came to a halt. Her success was thwarted. She was back to square one.

Saying "and it was written" makes me believe that it was written in response to her attempting to catch lightning in a bottle. As if it says "and so..."

I find this line interesting... because Eve wasn't bitten... she is the one that took the bite. Eve was tempted by the forbidden fruit, and when she bit into her she cursed mankind forever. So what does she mean by this? Did it just sound better? Or do you think it has a deeper meaning?

Pad around simply means to walk around. I see her pacing, distressed almost? frustrated?

She hasn't lost hope that she can harness the electricity of the sky But she is feeling helpless at this recent thwarting of her plans. She is strong, but she is not the strongest. Desperately, she looks to the gods

She's begging. She's begging to turn back time, to change whatever route she is currently on. To stop the madness.

Her specifying that she's doesn't want money leads me to believe that the current prophecy focuses on money. But she's over it. She just wants someone to love her.

This is the opposite of what she had said before...

And we know that money is a big factor in what she decides to do with her life.

But she's over these factors stopping her from finding companionship.

To lay your cards out on the table is to reveal yourself... You're laying out your truths and your plans. Revealing your hand.

In doing this... perhaps she realized how foolish she had been? How her plans could have never come to fruition?

It was sinking in that her fate has been written and pretending otherwise was pointless.

Everything changed so slowly, that by the time she realized what was happening, she was trapped.

The blood of the pricked hand immediately reminds me of Aurora

The pricking of her finger is meant to curse her to death, however she instead is entranced into a deeply sleep. The curse can only be broken by a true love's kiss.

Is this the him she is dreaming of? The one to lift the curse? If so, is it to mean whoever is to come and lift her curse? Or, is it commentary on "you just haven't met the right guy yet", a phrase used to deter lesbians from believing they feelings for other women are real...

Cries are non stop. The sobbing. The pleading for attention and care.

I imagine when you attempt to write with a pen who's ink has run out. You rewrite the same words over and over, but they fade with every attempt. She's losing steam

Her desires are primal. animalistic. This also reminds me of Glennon Doyle's book Untamed which we know Taylor read in 2020. In it, she talks about how women are trained to abandon their wild and slip into the framework of domesticity. That comp het trains women to ignore their deepest desires to fit the mold of what the world wants her to be.

I also believe she has referenced this before.

In peace on folklore, I believe she is directly referencing this idea.

She has tried to take her life into her own hands, so desperate for change that she has turned to witchcraft.

She is told to have faith that it will all work out, but she has waited too long. No one can wait for as long as they are asking her too. She's crumbling.

She's afraid its too late... that there is no turning back from the point she is at now. She's terrified that she will never be able to truly have love.

She is now just a pretty thing, meant to sit there and be looked at with no real other purpose. (like the album cover). The color drained from her being, left in sepia tones.

Spending a fortune on therapy to work through the heartache she is dealing with

Then the chorus again.

The Prophecy is so devastatingly heart breaking.

I wonder how swifties interpret this art without the queer lens... this song sounds so DEEPLY queer.

What do you think?

[agirlwiththoughtsandnegativity]

‼️I think a great message Taylor put in ttpd is that she’s mad at the fans…and good for her. Many fans still don’t see her as human, as a real person, just some toy they can manipulate to entertain them and fit their narrative. Many fans think their entitled to her personal life too: the letter for her to stop dating matty (yes I think Matty sucks but that was just weird af), speculation on who each song is about, the extreme discourse after her and joe broke up, the gaylor shit, even the talk about her and Travis. Taylor is finally saying it is weird to talk about REAL PEOPLE like that, like they’re tv show characters or your little toys. None of us are entitled to Taylor’s personal life and it is extremely odd to believe you should have a say in it. As Taylor says, NO the fans cannot come to the wedding, because we’re JUST FANS. Even now, some swifties need to see Taylor doesn’t know you, she’s not your best friend, not your sister. She makes music for us. She’s not trying to be a little circus for you to direct.

anyways, taylor is a real human, not a puppet. her personal life is hers, not your circus. and taylor doesn’t know you. she appreciates the fans for giving her her career, for listening to the music, but she has never met you; she. is. not. your. friend.‼️

[sippingaugustfolklore]

the storytelling in “you are in love” is magical

[ohnoitstbskyen]

I cannot stop thinking about "The Last Great American Dynasty"

There's an obscure, independent folk singer-songwriter whose work I've followed since she released a double album debut during the pandemic. It's all moody, introspective pop-folk - acoustic guitar and pianos against the occasional 808 beat.

While I'm clearly not the target audience, there is one song in particular that has stuck with me ever since the very first time I heard it.

Let's discuss.

Sources and further reading:

--- WIKIPEDIA ---

Rebekah Harkness: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rebekah_Harkness

Standard Oil: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standard_Oil

High Watch: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Watch

John D. Rockefeller: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_D._Rockefeller

The Ludlow Massacre: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ludlow_Massacre

The Homestead Strike: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homestead_strike

--- ARTICLES ---

Vogue - The Outrageous Life of Rebekah Harkness: https://www.vogue.com/article/the-outrageous-life-of-rebekah-harkness-taylor-swifts-high-society-muse

Small State Big History - Rebekah Harkness, the Scorned Socialite of Watch Hill : https://smallstatebighistory.com/rebekah-harkness-the-scorned-socialite-of-watch-hill/

St. Louis Magazine - The story of Rebekah Harkness is way more complicated than Taylor Swift lets on: https://www.stlmag.com/culture/music/the-last-great-american-dynasty-rebekah-harkness/

St. Louis Style - Who is Rebekah Harkness and Why is She the Star of Taylor Swift’s ‘The Last Great American Dynasty’?: https://www.stlouis.style/throwback-thursday/who-is-rebekah-harkness-and-why-is-she-the-star-of-taylor-swifts-the-last-great-american-dynasty/

SF Gate - Everything you think you know about the Winchester Mystery House probably isn't true: https://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/real-story-of-sarah-winchester-mystery-house-12552842.php

New York Times - IS THERE A CHIC WAY TO GO?: https://www.nytimes.com/1988/05/22/books/is-there-a-chic-way-to-go.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm

[kaylorstree]

🎃👻💀 IMPORTANT INFORMATION 💀👻🎃

[supernaturallyliterate]

I noticed something big about TTPD. I think that it connects to Taylor’s plans for The Eras Tour, the Yellow Brick Road / possible coming out journey, and the New Romantics / Mass Coming Out theory.

If you’re not interested in that type of content, please keep scrolling. But if you’re down to clown and theorize, come on a little adventure with me. 😉

I noticed it first with the song “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus”, so that’s where I’ll start in this analysis.

I think that this song is Taylor telling both Swifties / Hetlors and Gaylors that she is tired of all the expectations and obsession with her sexuality and love life (again). She’s been walking a fine line, Easter egging for both Hetlors and Gaylors for so long. She frames it as a lose-lose situation.

DEEP DIVE ON THE LYRICS:

Your hologram stumbled into my apartment

Hands in the hair of somebody in darkness named Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus

And I just watched it happen

I haven’t quite figured out the first few lines. Hologram suggests that the person who arrives isn’t real, or isn’t really there. This could be a reference to “Is that your key in the door?” from Hits Different.

First, it’s been noted before, but the switching between female and gender neutral and male names. This suggests not only multiple muses, but also multiple interpretations. And, of course the queerness of the speaker, which is assumed to be Taylor Swift.

As the decade would play us for fools

It’s been ten years since kissgate. I think when Kaylor first got together and schemed about this coming out plan, they never thought it would take ten years to come to fruition.

And you saw my bones out with somebody new

Who seemed like he would've bullied you in school

And you just watched it happen

First, “my bones” is referring to her body. For her body (pun intended) to be bones, she would have to be dead, and been dead a long time. The death of Taylor Swift. This could be referring to how she was dying inside from the closeting. Her true self was unfulfilled. It could also be referring to the beginning of the death of Taylor the Brand.

“Somebody” is still gender neutral, keeping with the ambiguity of the muse’s gender.

Yet the next line has he/him pronouns. Bearding. Taylor is bearding with a football player. We’ve seen football players bully a gay boy in the Taylorverse before.

If you want to break my cold, cold heart

Just say, 'I loved you the way that you were'

If you want to tear my world apart

Just say you've always wondered

I think the first two lines are for the Hetlors. This would be their reaction to her coming out— “I loved you [your music, etc] when you were straight.” This has Cold as You implications. To the Hetlors, she would be “cold-hearted” snake who was deceiving them by pretending to be straight when she was queer the whole time.

The second two lines are for the Gaylors. I interpret “always wondered” to be about wondering and speculating about Taylor’s sexuality, with possible ties to “Wonderland”. And the first part about breaking her world—that’s what would happen if she came out as queer. Not only would her brand and public world be broken, i.e. never the same, fractured, skewed, etc. The public “betrayal” and all that toxic shit. But also, her private world would be broken and shattered. The lavender haze she and her love created, their secret moments (even if in a crowded room), their coded language, etc would all be revealed. They wouldn’t be able to hide in their own little world anymore. (Also thinking about this in terms of “escaping to a planet where they could all understand it.”)

You said some things that I can't unabsorb

You turned me into an idea of sorts

You needed me but you needed drugs more

The media, the fans, etc have said things about Taylor that stay with her. That impact her deeply. We (and yes, I’m including myself in that) have turned Taylor the person into Taylor the Brand and Taylor the Anti-Hero, etc. All these different versions of her that aren’t truly representative of her true self.

I interpret the “you needed me” as “you needed me the person” and “you needed drugs more” as the addictiveness of Easter eggs, theories, fandom, media consumption, the need for “MORE” from Taylor. (Yes that’s a callback to ICDIWABH.)

And I couldn't watch it happen

And she couldn’t do it anymore. She needed it to end. But how do you break something so carefully crafted? By carefully deconstructing it like a mastermind chess playing badass and then smashing it with a hammer and setting the whole thing on fire.

I changed into goddesses, villains and fools

Changed plans and lovers and outfits and rules

This section reminds me of Mirrorball—she changed herself into different eras and personalities. She’s been a saint and a sinner. The villain reference is very reputation coded.

She changed plans after the Masters Heist and failed coming out during Lover.

Changing lovers refers to “switching out these Kens”, her PR boyfriends.

It also reminds me of Mastermind the game, how she constantly changed her outfits and the rules for her outfits to keep people on their toes.

All to outrun my desertion of you

And you just watched it

She literally said. I’m leaving you. But I don’t want to leave you, so I’ve been dragging it out as long as I can. But I can’t run from it.

And oh, by the way, you just watched it. You just witnessed it unfold. The duplicate meanings of this line!! “You just watched it.” the heartbreak of “you saw it happening and you didn’t do anything to stop it.” And “just” as a way to tell time—you just watched it, recently. And we’ve all been watching The Eras Tour for two years (well, 1 year 8 months, as she pointed out in her speech). And it just finished.

If the glint in my eye traced the depths of your sigh

Down that passage in time

Back to the moment I crashed into you

Like so many wrecks do

Too impaired by my youth

To know what to do

So if I sell my apartment

And you have some kids with an internet starlet

Will that make your memory fade from this scarlet maroon

like it never happened

This section is so Karlie coded. They met when they were super young, in 2008. And Taylor was too young to know what to do, how to navigate being a famous person and wanting to have this queer relationship. She had to figure out if she wanted to come out or stay closeted. And she didn’t know how it would go, how it could impact their relationship.

I won’t go too in depth but the having kids line refers to her marriage and family. And Maroon the song is 100000% a Kaylor song, so she’s drawing that direct parallel here.

Could it be enough to just float in your orbit

Could it be enough to stay in this lavender haze? Could it be enough to stay in our own little world, circling each other and not caring about the rest of the universe?

Can we watch our phantoms like watching wild horses

Ghosts of their past selves, when Kaylor was more open publicly? Like kissgate. But also I think about wild horses as beautiful, but easily spooked. If they know you’re watching, they’re going to run away. “I Know Places” and running from the hunters, the media, etc. So as soon as people started to notice and call attention to her queerness, she got spooked. She got scared, and she returned to the safety of the closet.

Cooler in theory but not if you force it

To be, it just didn't happen

I think these lines are her acknowledging that it is a nice to theorize about all these grand coming out plans, but it cannot and should not be forced on her and her lover by anyone—the public, the fans (hetlors and Gaylors), etc. “It just didnt happen” refers to the times she didn’t publicly come out. It could also be a reference to a Kaylor split (real or perceived) and Karlie’s wedding (which was referenced a few lines above).

And we get a repeat of the chorus, a reemphasizing of the impossible and unrealistic expectations on Taylor, and a transition to the end of the song, where she asks us a question.

If you want to break my cold, cold heart

Just say, 'I loved you the way that you were'

If you want to tear my world apart

Just say you've always wondered

Cause I wonder

Will I always

Will I always wonder?

Will I always be in the closet? Will I always wonder about what it would be like to come out? To be free?

[folksyswift]

can we PLEASE talk about how taylor swift really built an entire album around a car metaphor for a toxic relationship. like. she feels like this luxury car he crashed years ago!expensive, rare, irreplaceable… but she still wants him. so what does she do?? she tells him to go ahead, buy the car he wants. but here’s the thingggg the car won’t even start unless he touches her again.

and the wild part?? it works. he gets the car. so she lets go of her past and jumps in with him, ready to ride or die. they’re barely at the starting line before they’re breaking every rule, flooring it, crashing through fences like manic teenagers in love.

but then?? he starts throwing spikes on the road. like metaphorical sabotage. and she sees it, she knows it’s dangerous, but she doesn’t care because the ride is just so intoxicating. she’s addicted to the chaos and danger.

But of course. OF COURSE. he crashes it. again. AT HER OWN PARTY and he just drives away. To leave her stranded and safe, but right back at the start.

and the worst part??? she realizes he never even bought the car. it was a RENTAL. just like she was to him.

[swiftlark]

the prophecy is such an interesting song to me because on the surface, yes it’s about romantic love and finding your soulmate but i think it’s something so much deeper than that. all throughout history artists have struggled with loneliness, depression, alcoholism, addiction, etc. so many artistic people have their lives cut short by these things. and often times, they are alone. throughout her career taylor has expressed wanting things to be different, wanting to grow up and for woke with someone. she’s even expressed the fear that this won’t happen (“all of my heroes did all alone”). however, after the spring of 2023, i’m sure it felt like this was the case. especially since her fame and her art were so prominent in both of the relationships and were ultimately something that played a role in joever.

but its so much more than that. sure there are lines in the prophecy like “no sign of soulmates.” but, it also talks about how taylor feels cursed. and i feel like the “curse” is something we’ve seen play out time and time again with artists and their mental states. taylor even asks if it is “punishment” for her art and for her life. she’s comparing herself to every famous artist before her and wondering if anyone at all will ever understand her.

at it’s core, i really feel like the prophecy is asking if her fate is completely sealed because she chose to follow this life? is it the prophecy because she chose to create things or was the prophecy the driving her to write in the first place?

[yourlocalbadgerscales]

Idk, it’s just something about Taylor singing “I wanna transport you somewhere the culture’s clever, confess my truth in swooping, sloping, cursive letters” in Paris…

… and then writing this in TTPD summation:

“Lovers spend years denying”… in swooping, sloping, cursive letters ✨

[agreyrose]

“Taylor Swift doesn’t have any queer themes in her lyrics”

Taylor Swift:

“Oh muse, let’s run away together to a place where I can keep you safe and we can be free to be together away from everybody who would want to keep us apart. A place different and far away from here where everyone hunts us and tears us away from each other because they don’t understand our love. Come with me, muse, to a faraway fantasy land where there is no media, no paparazzi, and the only people who live there are gentle and clever, and they DO understand because they’re like us.”

[noitsjusttaylor]

The story I hear being told in Right Where you Left Me

This is nothing groundbreaking... this song just breaks my heart every time.

The passage of time.

Not just time passing, but the passing of big like milestones. marriage, birth, death, etc. Headlines are going through their cycles. Not only is time moving on, but so are you... But I am stuck in the place we ended... unable to move on like you have

Still time passing.

Time is an unstoppable force, like match after match bursting into flames.

Pages stick to each other like the years blending together.

You've moved on. Grown. gained new experiences and insights.

But I am right where you left me, unchanged, stunted.

I can't help but think of this literally.

I imagined the moments following the end. The muse has left, but she sits there, staring into the air in front of her.

The sadness obvious on her face. Everyone can see it. And she knows they are looking... but she can't hide it

I can't help but picture this BBC performance when I hear this song

The infamous hair pin.

I can't decide if she meant it this way. I don't think so. I think it may have been a flag, but not meant for direct translation? It could just be the world going quiet in her heartbreak.

idk who would be hinting at their queerness here...

The stomping of a glass in a white cloth is a common practice in Jewish weddings...

To me, these lines state that the shattering of glass on the white cloth is associated with everyone moving on...

an ex getting married is them moving on

If a hair pin drop is someone subtly dropping hints of queerness & her hair remains pinned up, those hairpins haven't dropped. She remains in the closet... so long and so still the dust is collecting... perhaps she would have taken down her hair if things were different

Is "they" her team? fans? the public? Perhaps team...

Expecting her to realize that this would never work... they expected her to realize that this was unsustainable and she should move on from this idea...

They didn't think it would hit her this hard... never took it seriously

She has talked about being frozen this whole time. but she's also in denial...

She can't let go of what could have been... and it isn't when she was 23, but when the muse was. Her muse was 23, and they were together and things felt right...

She was living her fantasy

This feels very hit's different to me. Everyone looking at her like, how many break ups have you had? This is so old news... but this time is different.

This time it is so excruciatingly painful.

The pronoun switch gets me...

Okay, so who is 23, who's fantasy is it, and who is you and me? I still think the She and You're go together and the her and me go together.

And when this ended... she was blind sighted. Maybe that is why she is so stuck... she didnt see it coming

My opinion that the glass shattering is connected to a wedding feels confirmed here. It is linking this new 'someone' with the glass shattering and reconfirms that it is part of the moving on.

I think this was more so notification of a wedding than a break up...

She can't keep up with the muse after their parting. The pain of them moving on is too much to bare.

I can't watch you move on like this... I can't see you with your new partner having the life we were meant to have.

She won't speak publicly about this separation... about this ending.

She won't stand in the way of the muse's decisions in life... but she also can't be there to see them happen.

Speaking of... how many of her public exes started dating or got married right after they split??

And no matter how much time passes... she will be here for the one that got away...

The loss of her life... the meteorite strike... she wrote this while in a "happy long-term relationship" btw.

So, while this thread is not entirely museless... I think the context of who I think it is about is so important for the analysis...

She is telling us that there is someone who is above everyone else. Someone she will go back to in a heart beat. Someone she will wait for forever

Do I think that will happen? No... not necessarily.... But I also don't think she will permanently settle down either... not yet anyways... and not with him.

What do you think?

[inocennt]

never grow up // peter

[letters-adressed-to-the-fire]

so this is why i think peter is the one looking in people's windows

A few days ago, I saw a swiftie on TikTok talking about how I look in people’s windows could be taken as the other perspective of the same story narrated in Peter, and I just couldn’t stop thinking about it. So, I decided to go in-depth and start a self-assigned quest to look for any clue that could interweave these two stories in a way that made sense.

I know this could sound a little absurd or could be taken as a stretch of some sort, but I believe, and I’m sure most of her fans would agree, that most of the beauty in Taylor’s writing comes from the countless different interpretations people bestow on her lyrics. I’m not asking you to take this analysis as absolute truth because I’m genuinely just having fun with it, and I hope you do too.

I’ll analyze “I look in people's windows” from Peter’s point of view and “peter” from the other character’s pov, whom we’ll call Wendy given the obvious parallelism to Peter Pan.

Well, the main and obvious connection is given by the “window” element. While Wendy is waiting for Peter by the window, Peter is looking for her from outside that window. If you look at this through very literal and rational eyes, I believe you’d think it doesn’t make sense that they were both looking for each other through the same window but never met again. So HERE is where I want to insert my interpretation.

There are two options I can think of that would explain the failed meeting. 

Peter intentionally avoided Wendy while still looking for her every day.

Every time they were looking for each other, it happened at different moments.

The first case presents a lot of questions, like, is the pledge to grow up what is stopping Peter because he knows he can’t do it? Or was he cruel enough to wait for Wendy to move on and then come back? Either way, the conclusion remains the same. In this scenario, Peter was a coward. If it was because he didn’t want to grow up, if it was because he just wanted Wendy to never move on, or if it was because he never gave her a real answer.

On the other hand, the second case talks about something that’s closer to a tragedy. They were always doomed by the narrative. While Wendy was waiting for him, Peter was looking for her, but Wendy never saw him—not when she waited or when Peter was looking for her. We would need to assume some things here tho. Either it all comes back to the first option and Peter had been avoiding her the entire time, or he thought she had already forgotten about him. The first option shows us, once again, that Peter is a coward, but the second one also tells us something important: he may be too scared to grow up, but he’s not selfish enough to stop her from moving on.

“Northbound I got carried away As you boarded your train South, south, south, south, south, south A feather taken by the wind blowing I'm afflicted by the not knowing so”

Based on this verse, we can design a new theory. He watched her leave and he was aching for her to come back to him. So he started looking for her in other people’s windows, wondering if one of them was gonna be her. Even when he had already said goodbye to her.

And here’s where another verse of peter will acquire significance:

“I thought it was just goodbye for now”

With both songs in mind, it sounds like he said goodbye to her, hoping they were gonna see each other again, but he also knew he had to let her go at the time and that he was condemned to miss her. But what Peter didn’t know was that Wendy was gonna go through the same thing, but she wouldn’t have the comfort of knowing what he did (wait for her).

“promises oceans deep, but never to keep”

This is why we get two completely different endings for both songs. While Peter is still addicted to the what-ifs, Wendy has turned off the light; the fantasies have expired for her. Wendy grew up; Peter didn’t. While I look in people's windows gives you the feeling of being running from house to house in a neighborhood you don’t recognize anymore, trying to fit into a routine you were used to in the past; peter reads like the last chapter of a book you’ll never touch again.