Hey Taylor…have You Ever Tried ✨this One✨?

😂

So there was a glitch and now she’s bolting…backwards…did the glitch turn back time?

I wanna know about the significance of the "the lakes" as in the lake district in England and how apparently karlie went there and tweeted about it, somewhere in 2017? 2018? And in the picture she tweeted, there were two swans in the background making a heart shape and that was one of the imagery used for lover album's merch? Not sure if you've talked about it before but I just wanna know more about it, thanks!

hello! i suspect this post may be of interest to you:

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NINE WING ONE FOR TAYLOR 📯

Hi 9, can I ask you something DNPy? I am a baby kaylor so I am still gathering and processing info and lore; my question is, during 2017, d

i don’t have an individual writeup about the picture you’re mentioning but i do have the goods— here is the photo of karlie by a lake in england, which we assume because she posted from london that week, as she was hosting the British Fashion Awards on december 4th.

separate from the england question but while i have you here i thought id just share some other 2017 tidbits— karlie firebuilding in april 2017

and then her friend derek (who she has affectionately called her ‘brother’ over the years) sitting her down for an interview in october of 2017 where he also points out that she knows how to build a fire.

rep was of course released on november 10th 2017 where ciwyw has the lyrics “built a fire just to keep me warm” and “trust him like a brother” so you can see here just the sort of brand name playfulness from karlie, who’s always somehow able to preview taylor’s upcoming lyrics a little bit earlier than any normal person would be able to preview.

This one piece of evidence is enough for me

Can we talk about how if Taylor had phrased it "lesbian pride makes me me!" they'd still be arguing "SHE JUST SUPPORTS LESBIANS!"

There is literally 0 logic to thinking it's not an identity statement, yet they find a way.

If you're not trans like myself then are you really going to say trans pride makes you who you are just because you're an ally???

Who you support does not correlate with personal identity. Something cannot make you who you are unless you are that something. This isn't a complicated concept

I think it's just one of the biggest proofs that it has never mattered what Taylor says or does, and that is why hairpin drop was dismissed when it has 0 other meaning and she doubled down to use it again 2 years after non-stop discourse about it.

It's simply 1 of 2 things:

1. They know Taylor is queer but will always force an act that they don't believe it simply because they don't want her to be or for that to be normalized.

2. They genuinely will not recognize anything explicity queer as queer because of that deep dislike towards the community even if it stems from internalization.

At this point there is simply not anyone that doesn't have homophobic views that cannot see at the very least that the Lover era was a coming out. I do not believe it.

The same song that she said "gay pride makes me me" about is a song about herself, her own love, characterized by queer pride, music video released on lesbian visibility day, and then you further pair that with all the promo posts for it being captioned the date of lesbian visibility with the pictures solely using the lesbian flag colors as the theme. Nobody is confused, it's just hate.

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The Ghost of Taylor Swift

I have had this theory rattling in my head for awhile. Basically I can see Taylor singing from the perspective of a ghost that can’t crossover to the afterlife wandering the halls of her former life waiting to be laid to rest and move on.

The story began in reputation when she died (“the old taylor can’t come to the phone right now cuz she’s dead”).

Then her cover art from Lover

And this is where it gets tricky. I believe Lover comes AFTER folklore and evermore. The album cover art for Lover looks like taylor is in the clouds of heaven looking down. Like she died on reputation now she’s in heaven.

However, I believe the pandemic “wrecked her plans” for Lover so she wrote two albums that tell the story of a ghost trapped between worlds in purgatory if you will. And the album cover art for folklore drives this point home.

She is looking up almost like she is trying to figure out how to get up there.

For the time being im just going to go through the story as I see it on folklore and maybe return to evermore at future time.

We get Peter Pan themes in cardigan and seven. Peter Pan is essentially a story of death and the afterlife.

“Peter losing Wendy”

“And I've been meaning to tell you/ I think your house is haunted/ Your dad is always mad and that must be why/ And I think you should come live with/ Me and we can be pirates”

Then we have the history lesson with LGAD and learn that she bought the property. She told the story of Rebekah in the past tense and when she talks about herself she says “I had a marvelous time” she remains in the past tense.

Then comes exile. I think Bon Iver’s part is a ghost watching Taylor with someone else. And the ghost is trapped in this world where it is forced to watch her like it’s torture reliving this day.

“I think I've seen this film before/ And I didn't like the ending/ You're not my homeland anymore...Now I'm in exile seein' you out”

Then the most explicit, the funeral/wake song, my tears ricochet. The whole song feels like Taylor is a ghost at her own funeral walking around watching all the people mourn the life she left behind.

“And I can go anywhere I want/ Anywhere I want, just not home”

Then mirrorball is this dreamscape view of who she has become this hollow version of her true self. Even though she is dead the world still sees her and she’s holding onto being seen even if it’s just mirroring. This song actually reminded me of the sun dying. We know that because of how far away the sun is from earth it would take like a little over 8mins for us to know it went out and in that time the sun shines its brightest. Again like Taylor is already dead but she’s going to shine her brightest before she goes out just for her fans.

“Hush/ I know they said the end is near/ But I'm still on my tallest tiptoes/ Spinning in my highest heels, love/ Shining just for you”

Then we have seven which I discussed a bit above but I’ll go into it a little further. She’s looking back to when she was still alive and was able to be herself. She reached her peak and had the choice to jump but she didn’t and the swing came back down with her bum still perched on the seat. Now she’s stuck.

“I hit my peak at seven feet/ In the swing/ Over the creek/ I was too scared to jump in”

“Please picture me/ In the weeds/ Before I learned civility/ I used to scream ferociously/ Any time I wanted”

Then in august we have Taylor again in this dreamscape. Taylor is saying “I can see us” like again she is looking from the outside in on her life and this relationship. This outside perspective where she’s a ghost reflecting and relishing in these moments in her life trying to figure out why she’s still wondering around this in between earthly plane.

Then this is me trying feels like her facing the dark side of her life. The song feels like her taking a turn and looking at her role in the low moment of her life and how she could’ve said more and been better. The second verse takes an outside perspective again looking back on what was happening in her head. Jumping back to exile “I never learned to read your mind” now in this is me trying Taylor is actually trying to verbalize what was going through her mind to her lover (the only person who can see the true her). “And maybe I don't quite know what to say/ But I'm here in your doorway.” Also the concept of being tortured with memories comes up again “You're a flashback in a film reel/ On the one screen in my town” like she’s trapped in this place where she is needs to fix this mess but she is still as a ghost and can’t do anything to stop it.

Illicit affairs is a song about her looking back on her life carrying on an affair with her lover. Loving her person in secret was okay for awhile But she learned that at a certain point you’ll want more and you can’t have it. She sings about living a double life. But what happens when you want to join the two but you can’t. Some part of you has to die. Thus creating a ghost.

Invisible string again feels like a dreamscape of what her life could be as ghost taylor comes to the realization that her life is tied to her lover and this is what she needs to fix in order to make it to her heaven.

“Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven”

Mad woman is ghost Taylor turning her anger towards the person/people who brought her to this hell.

“Wanting me dead has really brought you two together”

Epiphany feels like another dreamscape where taylor is pulled to other points in time. Definitely an interlude that seems to give perspective outside of her world but also touches her world. Specifically, being trapped in the moments between life and death. Those moments where you are watching someone’s life leave their eyes. The interlude of dying.

Betty in this world could be ghost taylor going back and asking for a second chance with her lover. It could be a flashback it could be the same film from this is me trying and exile. It’s the same story being told different ways. Right now is the last time I can dream about what happens when you see my face again.

Peace is Ghost taylor almost giving up. And trying to resolve to her afterlife in this purgatory in the woods and in a moment of solitude deciding what to do next. And ghost taylor asking if this would be enough. Would it be enough if I could never give you peace. If I never rest. If I haunted these woods forever. Would you be okay with just my ghost. What if I can’t get out is that okay.

Hoax gives reiterates peace in the sadness of its over. I don’t think this is a fight I can win. So ghost taylor fell into a desolate place realizing just how alone she really was in this purgatory. But staying there because she can’t leave the way she came and she doesn’t want to leave without her only one.

“My sleepless night/ My win-less fight/ This has frozen my ground.”

The lakes is ghost taylor realizing that her goal is to get out but she won’t do it until she can do it the way she wants with her person while she’s still trapped on the other side. But she knows killing her lover to do it is not the way. Almost like a battle cry she realizes that this is a fight for her life not for her lover’s death. (Ivy reference)

This is 💯 just my theory or story.

Secret time:

I struggle A LOT with Taylor song title acronyms/abbreviations. 🤣

I swear it’s like a disability— I have to google almost all of them. 8 times out of 10, my brain CANNOT look at a group of random letters and figure out which song it stands for.

I swear I’m smart but the struggle is real. 🙈

Can we talk about in the OOTW video when her hands are covered in spiked icicles? Anything she touches she will damage, whether it be herself or others. Does this represent when her hands were tied behind her back and she couldn’t defend herself? 

It’s Nice To Have A Friend with dorothea?!?! Oh my goodness

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and one more thing, this was 100% a coming out post (ON LESBIAN VISIBILITY DAY AFTER A 13 DAY COUNTDOWN OF RAINBOW PICTURES) and the fact that people chose to ignore that makes me so sad for taylor

A gaylor reading of the TTPD Prologue

*I do not claim to know the sexuality of Taylor swift. I simply think interpreting her lyrics from a gaylor perspective is more interesting and leads to interpretations of her music I personally find more impressive and complex.*

At this hearing

I stand before the fellow

Members

Of the Tortured Poets Department

(Ok so we are establishing that Taylor is a member of the tortured poets department and she is talking directly to the other members. This is important because it sets the whole context of the album. She is a tortured poet, and this album is for other tortured poets. Why is she tortured though?)

With a summary of my findings

A debrief, a detailed rewinding

For the purpose of warning

For the sake of reminding

(She wants to warn us about something by reminding us of what’s happened so far. Got it.)

As you might all

Unfortunately recall

I had been struck with a case

Of restricted humanity

Which explains my plea here today

Of temporary insanity

(To me, restricted humanity reads as fame. Taylor talks regularly about feeling caged by fame and like she’s not treated like a person. So fame has been restricting her humanity and it’s made her do something crazy.)

You see, the pendulum swings

Oh, the chaos it brings

Leads the caged beast to do

The most curious things

(Pendulum swings = what goes around comes around, time keeps on moving…. The word “curious” here is very interesting to me, because that’s a word so commonly associated with being in the closet- as well as its connection to Wonderland and the line “don’t you know what becomes of curious minds”. Taylor has done “curious” things before in her time in the spotlight. The cage is still her fame.)

Lovers spend years denying what’s ill fated

Resentment rotting away

Galaxies were created

(Lovers is an interesting word to use here because of the obvious connection to her past music! Now, why are the lovers Ill fated? Were they destined to not work out, and if so, why? What’s keeping them apart?

Resentment rotting away- Taylor’s resentment, or both of theirs? The obvious interpretation of this section of the poem is it’s about her and Joe’s failing relationship. But if we’re taking the gaylor perspective here- I think this section could very well describe being in love with someone you can’t be with, and the resentment that builds up as you see them move on with their life and even get married and have kids.

Galaxies were created reminds me of the lavander haze music video where Taylor created galaxies in her lovers back, and also of the Mastermind vinyl in her room in Lavander Haze with the constellations on it. To my ears, these galaxies are the stories she’s creating for the public. Her public romances, her relationships with the men she’s bearding with. She’s the one who put her and Joe’s constellations together in Lavander Haze, she’s the mastermind who’s created these galaxies.)

Stars placed and glued meticulously by the ceiling fan

(The galaxies are fake! She’s created them from her room, or her prison. She’s meticulously crafted these romances or stories with these men, but they’re not the real thing. )

Tried wishing on comets

Tried dimming the shine

Tried to orbit his planet

Some stars never align

(What is she wishing for? Could be her and Joe to work. Or it could be freedom? Or to be like everyone else? Or to be with her lover? Tried dimming the shine- the shine of what? To me this line is very easy to interpret from a gaylor lense. “Tried dimming the shine,” to my ears, implies dimming down who she really is, dulling the truth, hiding her true colors. Why couldn’t she orbit his planet when they were in a relationship for 6 years? It could certainly be it was a toxic relationship, could it also be that the “him” doesn’t matter, she can’t make that relationship work because it’s with a man? Regardless of the reason, she tried to make this relationship work but couldn’t. The stars never aligned. I also think it’s interesting That we’ve already discussed that the sky is fake, she meticulously created it next to her ceiling fan. So does she have control over these stars? Could it be that she never wanted the relationship, that’s why those stars could not align, because she, the one meticulously placing them, did not line them up? Was the end of the relationship part of a plan?)

And in one conversation

I tore down the whole sky.

(Again, the sky is fake, it’s the meticulously crafted relationships she’s created with these men or in this case Joe. In one conversation, she ended it all. I do think conversation is a notable word choice here, it implies civility and almost a sense that the moment is casual. This was not a fight, not a devastating breakup, they had a conversation and she tore up the whole story she created, or ended their bearding relationship.)

Spring sprung forth with dazzling freedom hues

(This is possibly the most gaylor line of the poem in my opinion. It also reminds me of the line in Ivy where she says “spring breaks lose, time is near.” I think it’s relevant that in gaylor lore, the summer around Lover is when we thought Tay was going to come out, but it got ruined by the masters heist, so we’ve regularly referred to that summer as her “sparkling summer.” The summer when she wore bright colors and rainbows and released Me! This is not the same spring, obviously, but I do think summer has significant metaphorical meaning in the Taylor verse one way or another. So, back to where we were, Taylor ends her bearding relationship with Joe and spring breaks forth in beautiful freedom hues. She’s not at all sad about the end of this relationship, it’s freedom.)

Then a crash from the skylight bursting through

(Interesting! Something real. If the ceiling galaxies represents fake relationships, is something crashing through the skylight representative of something real? Real emotions… I also think this ties in with the lavander haze music video, where she tears down the walls to discover galaxies of koi fish outside.)

Something old,

Someone hallowed,

Who told me he could

be brand new

(I’m not gonna lie, this is one of the harder lines to interpret from a gaylor perspective, it does seem obviously Rathew Healy coded. But, let’s break it down anyways. It’s notable that this section is a play on the wedding phrase, “something old something new something borrowed something blue.” Which of her possible muses has gotten married? I can think of one. Something old seems to reference a past relationship, it could also be a reference to something that’s been with her all along, a feeling, or a secret, that she’s always had. Someone hallowed- empty, this person is a shell. He told her he could be brand new. I think there are a few ways to interpret this. The obvious seems to be that a past relationship came back and told her he could be different this time. Could it also be that old feelings came up and crashed through her skylight, or through her constructed relationships, and she needed a new shell, or puppet, to conceal them? Was the shell saying he could be brand new offering to be whatever Taylor needed him to be?)

And so I was out of the oven

And into the microwave

(Taylor was preparing something, she was getting ready for something, but she had to rush it.)

Out of the slammer

And into the tidal wave

(The obvious interpretation is that the slammer is her relationship with Joe and the tidal wave is Matty, hence guilty as sin. However, what she’s saying at the core here is that as soon as she’s free, she’s in danger. Freedom will drown her. )

How gallant to save the empress from her guilded tower

Swinging a sword he could barely lift

But loneliness struck at that fateful hour

Low hanging fruit on his wine stained lips.

(Now I actually do believe this section is about Matty! He “saved” Taylor, took on a bearding relationship with her, but he couldn’t handle the responsibility. I think it’s very telling that she says loneliness struck. If they were in a real relationship, one that was a close and intense and passionate as she describes throughout this album, why is loneliness what tore them apart? Why were they lonely if they were twin flames? To me, the answer that makes the most sense is they were not. This relationship was not real, either. She got out of the prison of her bearding relationship with Joe and into the tidal wave of chaos that was a bearding relationship with Matty, but they were still both lonely in the end. And that loneliness drove him to say something drunkenly she couldn’t forgive. What low hanging fruit did he reach for? What nerve did he strike?)

He never even scratched the surface of me.

None of them did.

(This seems extremely telling from a gaylor perspective. NONE of them. Not a single one of these men truly understood Taylor. I do think it’s worth noting that Travis songs are on this album, and she does not say, ‘none until him,’ or even include Travis in this prologue. none of the men have scratched the surface of her, period.)

“In summation, it was not a love affair!”

I screamed while bringing my fist to my coffee ringed desk

(She’s screaming at us that this album is not about a love affair, and none of what happened was real love or romance. Her desk is coffee ringed because she’s been there a long time, writing, trying to explain herself.)

It was a mutual manic phase.

It was self harm.

It was house and then cardiac arrest.

(Her and Matty were a mutual manic phase. Why was that relationship self harm? It certainly could be bc Ratty is a terrible person and that relationship was toxic. It could also be that ALL of her relationships with men, or at least the ones referenced in this prologue, were self harm. She’s forcing herself into situations that hurt her for the sake of fame. The relationship was house arrest because she was trapped and then cardiac arrest because her heart died, there was no emotion or passion.)

A smirk creeps onto this poets face

Because it’s the worst men I write the best.

(She writes the men!! She is saying right here, she is the writer of the stories, the mastermind behind the galaxies. She’s smirking because she’s tricking us and she knows it. She knows she’s going to be misunderstood, she knows something we don’t.)

And so I enter into evidence my tarnished coat of arms

(Okay so she’s entering these things into evidence. Time to revisit the beginning. What is this evidence of? What is she warning us against? Is this evidence of her plea of insanity, or evidence to support her warning? At this point in the poem, what exactly is she warning us against? In my opinion, she’s warning us against idolizing her or trusting her at face value, she’s warning us against worshiping her relationship so she’s saying over and over, “this is a story I’ve constructed and now it’s torturing me.”

A coat of arms is a family sigil- it could also be seen on a shield. So Taylor’s coat of arms is something that protects her and identifies her- is it her brand? The public Taylor? It’s tarnished, is that because her reputation was tarnished with Matty? Is she saying, my tarnished brand is evidence this is torturing me?)

My muses, acquired like bruises

(She paid a price for each muse in her songs. Each one of these relationships she’s written about hurt her in some way. I also think it’s notable that bruises are visible signs of injury- we all see the bruises, we all define her by them. I think it’s obvious to see how her muse bruises are evidence she’s being tortured.)

My talismans and charms

(Talismans and charms reminds me of Easter eggs. Hidden symbols and messages and codes. Gaylors regularly use symbolism and Easter eggs as evidence that Taylor is not happy, she’s being tortured.)

The tick tick tick of love bombs

(The love bombs could certainly be love bombing in relationships- I think it could also mean love bombing from fans, and how it’s going to blow up in everyone’s face.)

My veins of pitch black ink

(Interesting for a few reasons. She’s dark and bitter on the inside, she doesn’t feel like she bleeds the same as everyone else. And, she has to bleed to write. She has to suffer for her art.)

Alls fair in love and poetry

(All of this, all the lies, all the constructions, everything I’m doing is fair because it’s for the sake of love and my art. This poem, and this album, is a warning against getting swept up in the stories of her relationships, because they’re constructions that she’s made for her art.)

Sincerely,

The chairman of the tortured poets department

(She’s not only in the tortured poets department, she’s the chairman. She’s in charge. She’s the head tortured poet. SHE IS BEING TORTURED FOR HER ART and we’re misunderstanding her.)

Or, you know, maybe it’s just about how she went insane and dated Matty Healy and now she wants to be seen as tortured and edgy.

If you made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read!

This was entirely for my own enjoyment, but if anything resonates with you or if you have another complex or unusual reading I’d love to hear it ✨