By Christa Protano
Dear Reader: Now that Ms. Swift is taking a break from her North American Eras Tour, it’s time to catch up on your book list. And since our anti-heroine is known to draw inspiration from a classic novel or two, why not start with the OGs. From enchanted fairytales to sad, beautiful, tragic love stories, Taylor’s songs are sweeter than fiction, woven with allusions to F. Scott Fitzgerald, Charlotte Brontë, and Emily Dickinson, just to name a few. Her narrative songwriting includes so many literary references that it’s easy to go down a rabbit hole of interpretation. But don’t panic, we have the CliffsNotes version right here.
But first, allow us to suggest creating a bookstack a la a pile of friendship bracelets with our bejeweled Word Cloud and leather-bound editions, available in such colors as red, lavender haze, gold rush and—ok, we’ll calm down. As we patiently wait for Taylor to gift us with a tune about that guy on the Chiefs (we do have great expectations, after all), here are 10 classic authors to help you find your own literary era.
…Ready for it?
Robert Frost, “The Road Not Taken”
I tried to take the road less traveled by / But nothing seems to work the first few times, am I right? —“The Outside,” self-titled debut album (2006)
Make sure nobody sees you leave / Hood over your head, keep your eyes down / Tell your friends you’re out for a run / You’ll be flushed when you return / Take the road less traveled by / Tell yourself you can always stop / What started in beautiful rooms / Ends with meetings in parking lots —“illicit affairs,” folklore (2020)
From the start of her songwriting career, Taylor alluded to literary greats like American poet Robert Frost. His “The Road Not Taken” can be seen as a source of inspiration on the sixth track of her debut album, in which Taylor sings about overcoming loneliness in middle school in “The Outside.” Fourteen years later, she wrote a line about less popular routes and how they play a role in infidelity for folklore’s “illicit affairs.”
William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone / I’ll be waiting, all there’s left to do is run / You’ll be the prince, and I’ll be the princess / It’s a love story, baby, just say yes —“Love Story,” Fearless (2008)
This is an obvious one, but no less iconic in terms of Taylor’s strength as a storyteller. While the Shakespeare-inspired song was written from personal experience (minus the tragic ending), Swifties took the song to heart, making “Love Story” the first country song to reach No. 1 on Billboard magazine’s Mainstream Top 40 chart in 2009.
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland
Flashing lights and we / Took a wrong turn and we / Fell down a rabbit hole…Didn’t they tell us don’t rush into things? / Didn’t you flash your green eyes at me? / Didn’t you calm my fears with a Cheshire cat smile?….We found wonderland / You and I got lost in it / And we pretended it could last forever —“Wonderland,” 1989 Deluxe Edition (2014)
“Wonderland” may be a recognizable choice, but definitely one not to skip given that Miss Alice is also having a moment right now (check out the family Halloween costumes of a certain Real Housewife and Kurt Adler’s 2023 collection of Christmas ornaments). Taylor is definitely a big fan of Lewis Carroll, too, since she took us on a love journey through a mad, mad world not only with 1989’s bonus track but also during her 2013 Grammy performance of “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby
It was so nice throwing big parties / Jump into the pool from the balcony / Everyone swimming in a champagne sea / And there are no rules when you show up here / Bass beat rattling the chandelier / Feeling so Gatsby for that whole year —”This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things,” Reputation (2017)
I hope she’ll be a fool / Who takes my spot next to you / No, I didn’t mean that / Sorry, I can’t see facts through all of my fury / You haven’t met the new me yet…All you want from me now / Is the green light of forgiveness —“happiness”, evermore (2020)
“The Great American Novel” is another classic that Taylor references in multiple songs. In 2017’s Reputation, she likens herself to Fitzgerald’s enigmatic millionaire as she comes to terms with all the tabloid scrutiny and fame she experienced in previous years. On evermore, she evokes Gatsby’s heroine, Daisy, with “happiness”—a somber break-up song despite its uplifting name.
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
It was the best of times, the worst of crimes / I struck a match and blew your mind / But I didn’t mean it, and you didn’t see it / The ties were black, the lies were white / In shades of gray in candlelight / I wanted to leave him, I needed a reason —“Getaway Car,” Reputation (2017)
Taylor opens track nine of her sixth studio album with a riff on Charles Dickens famous opening quote, “It was the worst of times. It was the best of times.” Like the best-selling novel, “Getaway Car” is used as a metaphor to tell the story of a tumultuous era, one where the main characters are heading for Splitsville.
I knew you / Tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy —“cardigan,” folklore (2020)
Given that folklore was written and released during the pandemic, it’s no surprise that a reference to Peter Pan appears in one of it’s songs. The crazy quarantined world we were living in provided ample time for reflection and also made us wish for a sweet escape. Perhaps that’s why Taylor wrote “cardigan,” a song about young love lost with a nod to Barrie’s Peter and Wendy. Even the song’s video had a Neverland feel, with Taylor dressed in a nightgown stepping through her piano into a lush fairyland.
A string that pulled me / Out of all the wrong arms right into that dive bar/ Something wrapped all of my past mistakes in barbed wire / Chains around my demons, wool to brave the seasons / One single thread of gold tied me to you —“invisible string,” folklore (2020)
And there’s nothin’ like a mad woman / What a shame she went mad / No one likes a mad woman / You made her like that —“mad woman,” folklore (2020)
Folklore also had the singer-songwriter turning to Charlotte Brontë for words with both “invisible string” and “mad woman” featuring hints of Jane Eyre. In the former, Taylor writes about being tethered to her soulmate with a single gold thread, much like how Mr. Rochester felt he was connected to Jane with a string under his left rib. And speaking of the man with the mentally ill wife locked in the attic, Taylor doesn’t let him off the hook (unlike Jane did) on the album’s twelfth track.
Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises
And isn’t it just so pretty to think / All along there was some / Invisible string / Tying you to me? —“invisible string,” folklore (2020)
The chorus of “invisible string” also alludes to the final words of Ernest Hemingway’s very first novel, The Sun Also Rises. During a taxi ride through Madrid, Lady Brett Ashley ponders what could have been with her friend, Jake Barnes, and he replies, “Isn’t it pretty to think so?”
And I was catching my breath / Floors of a cabin creaking under my step / And I couldn’t be sure / I had a feeling so peculiar / That this pain wouldn’t be for / Evermore—“evermore,” evermore (2020)
From gray Novembers to bleak Decembers, both “evermore” and “The Raven” deal with feelings of grief and depression. While Poe’s repetition of the word nevermore radiates despair throughout his poem, Taylor’s repeated use of the word evermore gives the listener a sense of hope by song’s end.
Emily Dickinson, Selected Poems
Spring breaks loose, the time is near / What would he do if he found us out? / Crescent moon, coast is clear / Spring breaks loose, but so does fear / He’s gonna burn this house to the ground —“ivy,” evermore (2020)
While the tenth track of evermore plainly talks about infidelity between a man and a women, it is the album’s title and its release that has Swifties thinking she may have written the song “ivy” about American poet, Emily Dickinson. Evermore was announced in 2020 on December 10th, which is also the poet’s birthday. The lyrics to “ivy” can also be interpreted as the alleged romantic affair between Dickinson and her best friend Susan Gilbert, who was married to the poet’s brother. Finally, Dickinson’s poem, “One Sister Have I in Our House,” ends with the line, “Sue – forevermore!”