20 Taylor Swift songs with literary references you may have missed (2024)

"The Outside" contains a clear allusion to Robert Frost.

"The Outside" is one of the oldest songs in Swift's catalog. She wrote the track for her debut album when she was just 12 years old, inspired by her experience of being "a complete outcast at school."

"I tried to take the road less traveled by / But nothing seems to work the first few times," she sings in the pre-chorus.

Anyone with a cursory poetry education will recognize the reference to Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken," thanks to its popularity in elementary-school curriculums. (I was personally introduced to Frost in fifth grade.)

The poem's conclusion is often read as a celebration of originality and self-determination, teasing the reward that may come with great risk: "Two roads diverged in a wood, and I— / I took the one less traveled by, / And that has made all the difference."

In 12-year-old terms, "the road less traveled by" represents the life of an "outcast," someone who marches to the beat of their own drum. Frost's final line makes it sound like a brave and noble choice.

This reference reappears much later in Swift's discography, in both "Illicit Affairs" ("Take the road less traveled by / Tell yourself you can always stop") and "'Tis the Damn Season" ("The road not taken looks real good now"). In the latter, Swift's character takes the road more frequently traveled and later comes to regret it.

"All Too Well" is thematically connected to Pablo Neruda's "Tonight I Can Write."

In the liner notes for "Red," Swift included a quote from the Chilean poet Pablo Neruda:"Love is so short, forgetting is so long."

The line is translated from "Puedo Escribir Los Versos,"widely known as "Tonight I Can Write."

Neruda was just 19 years old when "Tonight I Can Write" was published in 1924. It was included in a collection titled "Veinte poemas de amor y una canción desesperada," or, "Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair," which is now known as his most celebrated work.

Similarly, Swift wrote "Red" when she was between the ages of 20 and 22. The album is a collection of passionate ballads and breakup anthems, spanning the full emotional range that comes with an intense, ill-fated love affair.

The Neruda quote also opens the "All Too Well" short film, which shows Swift's proxy character falling madly in love, then spending years grappling with the aftermath.

Both "Tonight I Can Write" and "All Too Well" speak to the weaponization of memory, illustrating how sweet experiences with a loved one can become sharp and painful in retrospect — that even "the endless sky" (Neruda) or "the first fall of snow" (Swift) can feel sinister in their absence.

"Wonderland" is a "twisted" take on Lewis Caroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland."

As Swift recently told a crowd at the Eras Tour, her 2014 breakup song "Wonderland" was inspired by Lewis Carroll's 1865 novel. Swift uses "falling down the rabbit hole," which transports Alice to Wonderland, as an extended metaphor for falling in love — and losing her mind in the process.

"Haven't you heard what becomes of curious minds?" Swift sings in the pre-chorus, a reference to Alice's observation that "curiosity often leads to trouble."

Swift aligns herself with the book's band of outsiders with lyrics like "too in love to think straight" and "we both went mad." She also compares her ex-lover to the deceitful Cheshire Cat character ("Didn't you calm my fears with a Cheshire Cat smile?").

Swift revisited the concept of "falling down the rabbit hole" in her 2020 song "Long Story Short," doubling down on its negative implications ("And I fell from the pedestal / Right down the rabbit hole / Long story short, it was a bad time").

"New Romantics" kicks off with an explicit reference to "The Scarlet Letter."

In broad terms, "New Romantics" is a song about rising above the noise and standing by your choices, even if others malign them.

"There is a lesson in knowing that you can live your life in a way that you're proud of and people are still gonna take shots," she told Vanity Fair one year before the song's release.

In the first verse, Swift sings, "We show off our different scarlet letters / Trust me, mine is better."

Nathaniel Hawthorne's iconic novel "The Scarlet Letter"is set in thePuritanMassachusetts Bay Colonyin the 1600s. It tells the story of Hester Prynne, who dares to have a daughter out of wedlock. She is shunned by her community and forced to wear a red "A" (for "adultery") to symbolize her shame.

Her male lover, however, shares no blame for most of the book.

From a modern perspective, of course, the community's reaction is overblown and indefensible.

Swift's cheeky brag about her scarlet letter reflects this understanding; she draws a parallel between her own treatment by society and the misogynistic, puritanical mob mentality that Hester is subjected to.

By this time in Swift's career, her dating life had become a source of gossip, speculation, and oft-unsavory media coverage. Many tabloids branded her a "player" or "maneater," while in other corners of the internet, rumors about her relationship with Karlie Kloss had recently begun to pick up steam.

Swift's flippant response in "New Romantics" recalls "Blank Space," the second single from "1989," in which she pokes fun at her own headlines and satirically embraces her reputation ("Got a long list of ex-lovers / They'll tell you I'm insane").

She doubles down in the second verse of "New Romantics" ("The rumors are terrible and cruel / But honey, most of them are true").

Throughout the song, Swift expresses a distrust of society and enduring faith in her own ideals, echoing the main theme of "The Scarlet Letter," which ends with Hester's redemption and the death of her lead tormenter.

"...Ready For It?" name-drops Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, whose relationship was immortalized in "Furious Love."

In the opening track of "Reputation," Swift sings, "He can be my jailer, Burton to this Taylor / Every love I've known in comparison is a failure."

Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor's love story was chronicled in "Furious Love: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and the Marriage of the Century" by Sam Kashner and Nancy Schoenberger.

Swift confirmed she read the joint biography in a 2018 interview. The book can also be spotted in Swift's Instagram highlight titled "ladies & benji."

Interestingly, the tone of "Furious Love" doesn't seem to compliment Swift's lyrics, since Burton and Taylor's relationship would be considered a failure by most standards. They shared a torrid and obsessive connection, characterized by "delightful screaming matches," in Taylor's own words.

"I don't want to be that much in love ever again.… I gave everything away…my soul, my being, everything," Taylor told a friend after their second divorce, according to "Furious Love."

By including this reference, Swift may have been signaling a deeper, more sinister level to the "...Ready For It?" romance, lurking beneath her initial attraction.

Throughout their tumultuous relationship, Burton and Taylor made 11 movies together, including classics like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966) and "Antony and Cleopatra" (1972).

They also costarred in "The Taming of the Shrew," based on Shakespeare's play of the same name, which could be another point of reference for Swift's lyrics ("I'm so very tame now / Never be the same now").

Burton plays Petruchio and Taylor plays Katherina, aka Kate, the titular "shrew."

In both the original and the film adaptation, Taylor's character is headstrong and independent — until Burton's character "tames" her with psychological and physical torture, forcing her into the role of an obedient bride.

"Don't Blame Me" may contain a subtle nod to Daisy Buchanan.

In the second verse of "Don't Blame Me," Swift sings, "I once was poison ivy, but now I'm your daisy."

Of course, this could be intended as a simple comparison between a dangerous plant and an innocent flower. But Swift is a noted fan of "The Great Gatsby," F. Scott Fitzgerald's seminal novel; she name-drops the titular character later on this very same album.

Thus, the lyric in "Don't Blame Me" could be another name-drop.

Gatsby's love interest, Daisy Buchanan, is dubbed by the narrator as "the golden girl." Gatsby also describes Daisy's voice as "full of money." She is heavily associated with the colors gold and yellow throughout the book.

Swift also uses gold to represent love and beauty throughout the latter half of her discography, in songs like "End Game" ("It's like your eyes are liquor, it's like your body is gold"), "Dancing With Our Hands Tied" ("Deep blue but you painted me golden"), "Dress" ("Made your mark on me, a golden tattoo"), "Daylight" ("I once believed love would be burning red, but it's golden"), "Invisible String" ("One single thread of gold tied me to you"), and "Gold Rush" ("Everybody wants you / But I don't like a gold rush").

"Delicate" contains another subtle Fitzgerald parallel.

The fragility of love is a common theme in Swift's music, especially when it's placed in contrast to the harshness of reality (as in "Treacherous," "Out of the Woods," "I Know Places," and "The Archer," to name just a few).

"Delicate" is a particularly notable example. Swift sings about falling in love with someone new, all while wrestling with the knowledge that either of their hearts could break.

The song echoes a memorable passage from Fitzgerald's "This Side of Paradise," which Swift read (and liked) in 2013, long before starting work on "Reputation."

The novel follows a promising young college student named Amory Blaine and his three failed attempts to make a relationship last.

In the book's first section, titled "The Romantic Egotist," Amory overhears his mother talking about him: "'This son of mine,' he heard her tell a room full of awestruck, admiring women one day, 'is entirely sophisticated and quite charming — but delicate — we're all delicate; here, you know."

"Getaway Car" opens with an allusion to "A Tale of Two Cities."

"A Tale of Two Cities" by Charles Dickens contains one of the most famous opening phrases in all of literature: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

In the first line of "Getaway Car," Swift swaps the last word for "crimes."

Swift uses the getaway-car metaphor to tell the story of a doomed relationship, which she used selfishly as a vehicle for escape.

The song gestures at infidelity, painting Swift as a liar ("I didn't mean it") and a criminal ("Put the money in a bag and I stole the keys / That was the last time you ever saw me").

However, it also plays with the idea of morality, painting Swift's actions as justified in the face of a much bleaker fate ("I wanted to leave him, I needed a reason").

This ambiguity speaks to the full version of Dickens' opening line, in which he presents a list of opposites and dueling ideas: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way."

Like Swift, Dickens suggests that everything exists as a push and pull; nothing is simply good or bad, black or white.

"This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" explicitly references "The Great Gatsby."

"This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things" opens with a scene of opulence and hedonism: big parties, champagne seas, rattling chandeliers, no rules.

Swift sums up the scene with an explicit Fitzgerald reference: "Feeling so Gatsby for that whole year."

"The Great Gatsby" is set in New York City in the 1920s, commonly known as the Jazz Age. It was a time characterized by excess — of wealth, alcohol, and self-indulgence — that partially led to the stock-market crash of 1929.

In the book, Gatsby is a key player in the city's party scene, known for hosting blowouts at his mansion and allowing guests to act however they please.

However, he's also a man of deception. It's heavily implied that he made his fortune illegally, most likely by smuggling alcohol during prohibition. He doesn't drink; his extravagant parties are actually a schemeto seduce Daisy. His real name isn't even Gatsby.

So the Gatsby reference pairs nicely with the theme of Swift's song: deception. Swift goes on to describe how she was stabbed in the back, lulled into a false sense of security by the glittering artifice of celebrity and friendship.