Before The Tortured Poets Department used to be ever a glimmer in Taylor Swift’s eye, the singer peppered her music with references to classic literature.
As early as 2006, Swift incorporated a nod to Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” within the song “The Outside” from her self-titled debut album. “I tried to take the road much less traveled by,” she sang. “But nothing seems to paintings the primary few times, am I right?”
The lines have been the first of many literary references to come, with Swift later folding in allusions to works by means of authors together with Charles Dickens and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Perhaps most famously, her Fearless unmarried “Love Story” borrows from William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. In 2010, Swift mentioned that studying the play in ninth grade in part impressed the track.
“A large number of individuals who gravitate toward track are actually, in reality sort of drawn to poetry since the words all have a rhythm and it comes together just right,” she stated all over a chat at Scholastic headquarters. “I really like poetry, because when you get it proper, for those who put the right rhymes on the proper ends of the sentences, you can virtually make phrases leap off a page.”
Keep reading for an entire, alphabetical information to all the literary references in Swift’s discography:
‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland’
Swift’s first tribute to Lewis Carroll’s beloved kids’s e book came in 2014 on 1989 by means of the bonus observe “Wonderland.” In the song, the narrator and her lover fall “down a rabbit hole” and get misplaced in a “wonderland” together. “Didn’t you calm my fears with a Cheshire Cat smile?” she sings at one level.
Swift revisited Carroll’s work on “Long Story Short” from 2020’s Evermore with the road, “I fell from the pedestal, right down the rabbit hollow.”
‘All’s Well That Ends Well’
Shakespeare’s comedy gets a handy guide a rough nod in “All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” from Red (Taylor’s Version), which dropped in 2021. Swift begins the fourth verse with the traces, “They say all’s well that ends smartly, however I’m in a brand new hell / Every time you double-cross my thoughts.”
She prior to now referenced the play on “Lover” from the 2019 album of the similar call, making a song, “All’s well that ends well to end up with you.”
‘American Pie’
To millennials of a undeniable age, American Pie is literature — don’t @ Us. Swift references the intercourse comedy on TTPD’s “So High School,” which is nearly unquestionably about her romance with Travis Kelce.
Aristotle
“So High School” additionally features a nod to the Greek philosopher Aristotle, who is considered by means of many to be the primary scientist. “You know how to ball, I know Aristotle,” reputedly referencing memes that compare Kelce and Swift’s intelligences.
The Bible
“Now That We Don’t Talk” from 1989 (Taylor’s Version), launched in 2023, comprises an allusion to a Bible story from the e-book of Exodus. “You phase the gang just like the Red Sea, don’t even get me began,” Swift sings, referencing Moses leading the Israelites out of Egypt.
Swift drew on her Sunday school wisdom once more on “Guilty as Sin?” from TTPD, referencing Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection with the strains, “What if I roll the stone away? / They’re gonna crucify me anyway / What if the way in which you cling me is if truth be told what’s holy?”
TTPD’s “The Prophecy” also includes a nod to the Genesis story of Adam and Eve within the first verse with the road, “I got cursed like Eve got bitten.” (John Milton stans, this is it appears as close as we’re getting to a Paradise Lost reference.)
Cassandra
Swift makes one of her many references to Greek mythology on TTPD’s “Cassandra,” which features the chorus, “So, they killed Cassandra first ’motive she feared the worst / And tried to inform the city / So they stuffed my mobile with snakes, I remorseful about to say / Do you imagine me now?” Cassandra was once the daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecuba of Troy. She had the reward of prophecy, but the god Apollo cursed her so that her predictions would now not be believed.
‘Compassion’
In the music “Ivy” from 2020’s Evermore, Swift borrows a line from Miller Williams’ poem “Compassion,” published in 1997. “I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bones,” she sings within the first verse. Williams’ poem, meanwhile, reads, “You do not know what wars are occurring down there where the spirit meets the bone.”
Dylan Thomas
Swift name-drops the Welsh poet in TTPD’s title monitor, singing, “I laughed in your face and said, ‘You’re now not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith.’”
‘Grand Theft Auto’
Again, Grand Theft Auto is literature to millennials of a undeniable age, so don’t @ Us. The video game pops up in TTPD’s “So High School” within the line, “Touch me whilst your bros play Grand Theft Auto.”
‘The Great Gatsby’
Swift made her first reference to the F. Scott Fitzgerald novel on “This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things” from 2017’s Reputation with the lyric, “Feeling so Gatsby for that complete year.” As former highschool scholars would possibly recall, titular personality Jay Gatsby (a.okay.a. Jimmy Gatz) is legendary for throwing lavish events that hide his shady background.
Three years later, Swift nodded to the guide again in “Happiness” from Evermore. The lyric, “I am hoping she’ll be a beautiful fool who takes my spot subsequent to you” is a play at the persona Daisy’s observation that she hopes her daughter shall be a “stunning little idiot,” while the road, “All you wish to have from me now could be the green gentle of forgiveness” recollects the e-book’s well-known green mild, which symbolized the not possible nature of Gatsby’s dreams.
‘Humpty Dumpty’
“The Archer” from Lover quotes the vintage nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty” with the lyrics, “All the king’s horses, the entire king’s men / Couldn’t put me together once more.”
‘The Iliad’
1989 bonus observe “You Are in Love” comprises an oblique reference to The Iliad within the line, “And you understand now why they lost their minds and fought the wars.” While it’s now not explicit, this seems to be a nod to the mythological Trojan War, the place the Greeks and the Trojans fought over Paris taking Helen from her husband, Menelaus, the king of Sparta.
“State of Grace” from Red contains an allusion to Achilles, a hero of the Trojan War, with the lyric, “These are the arms of fate, you’re my Achilles heel.” Homer’s Iliad, on the other hand, makes no point out of Achilles having a weakness in his heel.
King Midas
Swift is it sounds as if something of a mythology buff because “Champagne Problems” includes a reference to King Midas, who may flip the rest to gold by touching it. Swift mentions the mythological royal while describing a personality within the track, making a song, “Your Midas contact at the Chevy door.”
Nancy Mitford
While some Swifties thought “The Bolter” can be a couple of viral paparazzi shot of Joe Alwyn fleeing a automobile, the TTPD observe in fact turns out to be inspired via a character in Mitford’s novels referred to as The Bolter. Mitford was once an English writer famous for writing 1945’s The Pursuit of Love and 1949’s Love in a Cold Climate.
While The Bolter of Mitford’s books used to be fictional, she was once impressed through an actual person: Idina Sackville, who's the subject of Frances Osborne’s nonfiction e-book The Bolter: The Story of Idina Sackville, Who Ran Away to Become the Chief Seductress of Kenya’s Scandalous “Happy Valley Set,” which used to be printed in 2008. Osborne is the great-granddaughter of Sackville, who was once known for getting married and divorced a couple of times and flaunting conventions in the early twentieth century.
‘One for the Money’
“Champagne Problems” also features a nod to the classic children’s rhyme “One for the Money,” which has been round for the reason that nineteenth century. Swift’s lyrics learn, “One for the money, two for the show / I by no means used to be able, so I watch you go.”
Patti Smith
Smith also seems in “TTPD” along Thomas. While she’s identified basically as a singer-songwriter, Smith may be a prolific writer, having written the memoirs Just Kids and M Train in addition to a number of books of poetry.
Peter Pan
On the Folklore observe “Cardigan,” Swift references the fictitious character created through J.M. Barrie. At one level, she names Peter directly, pronouncing, “Tried to exchange the finishing / Peter shedding Wendy.” Later in the observe, she discusses “chasin’ shadows in the grocery line,” which seems to be an allusion to the way in which Peter chases his own shadow whilst visiting the Darling kids.
TTPD: The Anthology includes a whole track about Peter Pan, fittingly titled “Peter.” Swift sings about never growing up and features a line where she says her love hobby used to be “lost to the Lost Boys chapter” of his existence. The Lost Boys were Peter Pan’s buddies in Neverland who famously by no means grew up.
‘Rapunzel’
Swift flexes her fairy-tale muscle tissue once more on TTPD’s “The Albatross,” when she sings the road, “Locked me up in towers however I’d visit in your desires.” This generally is a reference to the story of Rapunzel, who used to be locked in a tower. The witch who locked her there would consult with by way of climbing Rapunzel’s hair.
The Red Thread of Fate
“Invisible String” from Folklore attracts inspiration from the theory of the crimson thread of destiny, an idea from East Asian mythology. The crimson thread of destiny is an invisible twine tied across the hands of people who find themselves destined to meet. In the Chinese model of the tale, Yue Lao, the god of marriage and love, is accountable for binding other people with the pink thread.
Robert Frost
Swift has not however three songs that include nods to Frost’s “The Road Not Taken.” The first came on “The Outside” from her 2006 debut album when she sang, “I tried to take the street much less traveled by, but nothing seems to paintings the primary few instances, am I right?”
She then quoted the similar line on “Illicit Affairs” from Folklore, singing, “Take the road much less traveled via, tell your self you'll be able to at all times prevent.” The highway appears another time on “‘Tis the Damn Season” from Evermore in the lyric, “And the road now not taken appears to be like real just right now.”
Swift perhaps referenced Frost once more on TTPD’s lead single, “Fortnight,” nodding to his poem “Mending Wall” in the refrain with the lyric, “Now you’re in my yard, changed into good neighbors.” Frost’s poem famously comprises the road, “Good fences make just right neighbors.”
‘Romeo and Juliet’
Swift’s most renowned literary reference came in “Love Story” from 2008’s Fearless, the place the narrator is Juliet to her love pastime’s Romeo. Unlike Shakespeare’s tragedy, this version has a happy finishing, with Romeo getting permission from Juliet’s dad to marry her. The track ends with the proposal, but probably Dad’s approval method they don’t have to pretend their own deaths to tie the knot.
On the TTPD monitor “The Albatross,” Swift nods to Romeo and Juliet again when she says, “A rose through another name is a scandal.” In the play, Juliet says of Romeo, “What’s in a reputation? That which we name a rose / By some other call would odor as candy.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge
In what turns out to be the only Romantic poetry reference on TTPD, Swift titled a song “The Albatross.” She doesn’t mention Coleridge by name, however his most renowned work is “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” which is set a sailor who kills an albatross. After the bird’s loss of life, dangerous issues get started going down, and his fellow seamen make him wear the dead albatross around his neck.
‘The Scarlet Letter’
Swift has two references to Hawthorne’s 1850 novel in her discography. The first got here in “Love Story” with the lyric, “Cause you had been Romeo, I was a scarlet letter.”
The second got here in 2014 on the 1989 bonus observe “New Romantics,” which contains the line, “We show off our other scarlet letters, accept as true with me, mine is healthier.”
For just a little highschool English magnificence refresher: The Scarlet Letter is set a girl named Hester Prynne who should wear a red “A” after she conceives a kid out of wedlock. (The “A” is for adultery.)
‘The Secret Garden’
Swift alludes to another classic kids’s guide at the TTPD track “I Hate It Here,” which mentions Frances Hodgson Burnett’s 1911 novel, The Secret Garden. “I hate it here so I will go to secret gardens in my thoughts,” she sings. “People want a key to get to, the only one is mine / I read about it in a ebook when I was a precocious child.”
‘Slaughterhouse-Five’
In addition to having a music titled “So It Goes” on Reputation, Swift uses the word in both “Style” and “You Are in Love” from 1989. It’s not transparent whether she’s deliberately referencing Kurt Vonnegut in any of those tracks, however “so it goes” is an oft-repeated line in the writer’s 1969 novel, Slaughterhouse-Five.
‘Snow White’
Swift references the Brothers Grimm fairy story in “The Best Day” from Fearless. “Don’t know if Snow White’s house is near or a long way away,” she sings. “But I do know I had the best day with you lately.”
Later in the track, she nods to Snow White’s companions when she says, “It’s the age of princesses and pirate ships and the seven dwarfs.”
‘A Tale of Two Cities’
The opening line of “Getaway Car” from Reputation is a play on the opening line of Dickens’ 1859 novel, A Tale of Two Cities. Swift’s version reads, “It used to be the most efficient of occasions, the worst of crimes,” while the Dickens quote starts, “It was once the most efficient of times, it was once the worst of instances.”
‘Valley of the Dolls’
This one is a little bit in the market, but on TTPD’s “Florida!!!,” Swift and Florence Welch sing, “Tell me I’m despicable, say it’s unforgivable / At least the dolls are gorgeous / F–k me up, Florida.” It’s no longer transparent whether “dolls” refers to people, however in Jacqueline Susann’s 1996 novel, Valley of the Dolls, the characters refer to pills as “dolls.” Since this whole track is ready Florida being a “hell of a drug,” is it in point of fact too much of a stretch to assume “dolls” method “tablets” here too?
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William Wordsworth
Years ahead of announcing The Tortured Poets Department, Swift nodded to the Romantic poet in her Folklore bonus monitor “The Lakes.” The track includes a pun on Wordsworth’s name in the lyric, “I’ve come too a ways to watch some name-dropping sleaze inform me what are my words worth.”
In the chorus, she sings, “Take me to the Lakes,the place all of the poets went to die.” Wordsworth, who continuously wrote about England’s Lake District, died at his home within the space in 1850 and was buried at St Oswald’s Church in Grasmere.
‘A Wrinkle in Time’
“So High School” from TTPD features a reference to the classic young adult myth novel A Wrinkle in Time by way of Madeleine L’Engle, which follows 13-year-old Meg as she trips thru house and time to rescue her dad. “The breaking point of a wrinkle in time,” Swift sings on the track. “Bittersweet 16 all of sudden.”
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