The professor’s citing her previous works.
Already, The Tortured Poets Department has taken over the internet (and Spotify and Apple Music). On the 31-track double album, TTPD: The Anthology, Swift shows off her songwriting skills to the fullest. But it’s not like the language in Swift’s latest collection was made completely from scratch.
Throughout the album, there are several lyrical references to other songs in Swift’s discography. For example, “So Long, London” is basically one long tribute to her previous work on Midnights and Lover.
Whether Swift is directly quoting herself or simply recycling the same metaphors, there are plenty of lyrics throughout TTPD that sound familiar to veteran Swifties.
Here are 11 Tortured Poet lyrics that seem to be calling back to other moments in Swift’s music.
In “So Long, London,” Swift sings about the end of a relationship, touching on how she tried to revive it before giving up:
“I stoppеd CPR, after all, it's no use / The spirit was gonе, we would never come to / And I'm pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free.”
The lyrics seems to be a reference to her Midnights track, “You’re Losing Me.” In it, she sings, “I can't find a pulse / My heart won't start anymore / For you.”
At another point in the TTPD song, she sings about “getting color back into my face.” Meanwhile, in “You’re Losing Me,” she describes a similar affliction: “My face was gray, but you wouldn't admit that we were sick.”
“So Long, London” has other lyrics that match up, too. In the chorus, she sings, “For so long, London / Stitches undone / Two graves, one gun.”
This isn’t the first time Swift has used the metaphor of a “stitch” to describe a connection. In “Glitch” on Midnights, she uses the term to describe the beginning stages of a romantic connection:
“I think there's been a glitch, oh, yeah / Five seconds later, I'm fastening myself to you with a stitch, oh, yeah / And I'm not even sorry.”
TL:DR; Someone took a seam ripper to that stitch.
Yes, there’s another heartbreaking reference in “So Long, London.” In the track, she sings:
“You swore that you loved me, but where were the clues? / I died on the altar waitin' for the proof / You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days.”
For Reputation stans, this imagery might sound familiar — although much less sexy this time around. In “False God,” she sings, “The altar is my hips / Even if it's a false god / We'd still worship this love.” Oof.
Apparently, even Swift has dealt with men with Peter Pan syndrome — aka, a bad case of never growing up. “You said you were gonna grow up / Then you were gonna come find me,” she sings at one point in “Peter.”
Later, she makes the connection even clearer:
“And you said you'd come and get me, but you were twenty-five / And the shelf life of those fantasies has expired / Lost to the ‘Lost Boys’ chapter of your life / Forgive me, Peter, please know that I tried.”
Swift has sung about this character before. In “Cardigan” on Folklore, she sings, “I knew you / Tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy.”
One of the clearest lyrical references Swift makes to her discography happens on “Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus.” In it, she sings:
“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?”
Here, Swift is *almost* directly quoting her song “Maroon.” The lyrics go:
“The mark you saw on my collarbone, the rust that grew between telephones / The lips I used to call home, so scarlet, it was maroon.”
In “Fresh Out The Slammer,” Swift sings about the freedom that comes from leaving a relationship behind to pursue who you really want. In the track, she references rings that aren’t quite real:
“Ain't no way I'm gonna screw up now that I know what's at stake here / At the park where we used to sit on children's swings / Wearing imaginary rings.”
She’s made similar comparisons before. In Lover, her song “Paper Rings” has similar language: “I like shiny things, but I'd marry you with paper rings.”
Swift sings about being disappointed by a relationship (or situationship) in “Down Bad.” She questions the person who left her behind, “How dare you think it's romantic / Leaving me safe and stranded?”
It’s a departure from her interpretation on “New Romantics” from 1989. “Please leave me stranded / It's so romantic,” she sings in that 2014 track, romanticizing that same idea. Ten years later, it sounds like Swift is not as into that kind of behavior.
Swift seems to be commenting on her life being available for public consumption in “Who’s Afraid Of Little Old Me?” Specifically, she compares her life to the trappings of a “circus.” She sings, “I was tame, I was gentle 'til the circus life made me mean / “Don't you worry, folks, we took out all her teeth.”
For Folklore fans, this is a familiar metaphor. In “Mirrorball,” she sings, “And they called off the circus, burned the disco down / When they sent home the horses and the rodeo clowns / I'm still on that tightrope.”
Swift sings about reigniting an old flame in “Imgonnagetyouback” — but it doesn’t sound like a healthy decision. “Pick your poison, babe, I'm poison either way,” she sings in the song.
She’s referenced this kind of toxicity before. In “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” Swift sings, “If you tasted poison, you could've / Spit me out at the first chance.”
In “Loml,” Swift sings about being duped by someone claiming to be ~the one~. “You said I'm the love of your life / About a million times,” she sings.
In “Illicit Affairs,” she uses similar language throughout the song:
- “But it dies, and it dies, and it dies / A million little times.”
- “But they lie, and they lie, and they lie / A million little times.”
- “For you, I would ruin myself / A million little times.”
Throughout her discography, Swift makes it clear she’s not a fan of clowns. “Call the amateurs and cut 'em from the team / Ditch the clowns, get the crown,” she sings in “The Alchemy.”
It’s an insult she’s used before. In “Peace,” she sings, “But there's robbers to the east, clowns to the west.” (Fans think this line is a Kanye West diss, BTW.)
