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MUSIC FEATURE
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TORTURED PROSE FROM THE AMERICAN ROSE
T aylor Swift is a modern day poet - who else can come up with lines like ”You call me up again just to break me like a promise, so casually cruel in the name of being honest” (from magnum opus All Too Well )? We also know that she admires the greats, whether she’s mentioning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda in the
prologue to 2012 album Red , or making some clever little allusion to a nook of literature in her lyrics. In announcing her 11th album (not counting the Taylor’s Versions ) as she accepted her 13th Grammy Award earlier this year, Swift revealed that the new record’s name makes a direct reference to poetry - and it immediately became
grist for the mill of album theories! Is ’The Tortured Poets Department’ - and the fact that Swift has dubbed herself its ’Chairman’ - a reference to suffering for one’s music? An exploration of Taylor’s own inner turmoil, like the torments of old-timey sonnet writers? Or is it about paying homage to the writers on whose
shoulders she stands? We’re taking that last one and running with it, exploring four of Taylor’s references to classic literature and poetry from her already released albums, and then offering up four (totally speculative!) ideas on which classics she might delve into on The Tortured Poets Department .
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE ”You were Romeo, you were throwin’ pebbles And my daddy said, ’Stay away from Juliet’” Love Story, 2008 Here’s the one that might have sashayed into your mind first: Swift goes straight for the allegorical jugular with her reworking of William Shakespeare’s tragedy Romeo and Juliet , which arrived as the lead single from her second album, Fearless . Swift’s song doesn’t end with the star cross’d devastation of The Bard’s most famous play (first performed in 1597), but instead, the protagonist’s father changes his mind and allows the dewy-eyed pair to get married. Swift was 18 when she wrote this one, so no points deducted for its cheese. F. SCOTT FITZGERALD ”The wedding was charming, if a little gauche Swift received some mighty praise for the narrative arc of her Folklore track The Last Great American Dynasty . Could it be such a belter because she shaped its tale around F. Scott Fitzgerald’s literary masterpiece (and bane of the lives of high school students There’s only so far new money goes” The Last Great American Dynasty, 2020
socialite whose Long Island house Swift bought in 2013. The Great Gatsby revolves around nouveau riche party boy Jay Gatsby, whose lavish and scandal-filled lifestyle gives the New York Jazz Age gossips plenty of fodder. CHARLES DICKENS ”It was the best of times The worst of crimes” Getaway Car, 2017 In what’s become a fan fave of Swift’s
everywhere) The Great Gatsby ? Both narratives explore wealth, privilege, societal norms, and the American Dream, while orbiting a charismatic and controversial main character. The Great American Dynasty follows Rebekah Harkness, the real life
Rebekah Harkness, whose mansion Taylor Swift purchased 11 years ago
A sartorial secret
In the cover artwork for 2021’s Fearless ( Taylor’s Version ), Swift wears a white peasant-style shirt… which looks remarkably
similar to the shirt ’Romeo’ wears in the Love Story clip. Fans took it as a message that Swift’s reinvigorated ideas on ownership (generated by her re-recording project, in which Fearless was the first entry) meant the artist was no longer relying on a white knight to guide her - she had become her own saviour.
The cover of Fearless ( Taylor’s Version ), and a still from the Love Story clip
16 APRIL 2023
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