Fortnight, meaning two weeks describes a love affair, which the narrator claims is “ruining [her] life”. The song seemingly follows two neighbors who are in love with one another and yet married to different people. The narrator proceeds to sing of her longing for her forbidden and lost love, only for her to be left in heartbreak as her neighbor, the man she loved, goes to Florida in a car he won. Florida opens The Tortured Poets Department and Swift thinks it “exhibits a lot of the common themes that run throughout the album”. The song is the only one in the album to have a music video so far, in which many easter eggs and symbols are hidden. 

The Tortured Poets Department, sharing its name with the album, sounds eerily similar to songs from the Midnights album and describes a short but intense love between ‘tortured poets’. The song describes the feeling of newness and excitement within the drama that occurs when first entering a relationship. Swift expresses a genuine sense of self-awareness in this song as she realizes, in retrospect, the momentary and consuming aspect of the relationship.  

Swift takes an interesting approach to convey the feeling of being love-bombed by making the feeling synonymous with being abducted by aliens. Taylor describes their “cosmic love” and says she “[stares] at the sky, [to] come back and pick [her] up” after her short-lived romance with an extraterrestrial creature ended with the alien returning to space and leaving her behind on earth. Listeners have connected the message in the song to Taylor’s personal life and her short but intense relationship with someone from her own life. 

As the title suggests, But Daddy I Love Him is about a girl fighting against her better judgment and ignoring restrictions placed by others to pursue her love for a chaotic man. While this can very well be considered a reasonable explanation for the song, listeners also claim that Swift wrote this song directly addressing her fans and their disapproval of her summer fling with Matty Healy. Taylor claims that she “knows he’s crazy” but still doesn’t care what anyone else thinks because “he’s the one [she] wants”. 

A song featuring Florence + The Machine serves as a continuation to Fortnight. Taylor develops the storyline of consequences of the regretful decisions that were made, as described in Fortnight, and continues that storyline into Florida!!! in which Taylor describes escaping to Florida and living a life with no regrets or rather forgetting the life filled with regrets. 

In Guilty as Sin, Swift explores the confusion and choices she made after getting out of a six-year relationship. Swift, similarly to how she does with Fresh Out of the Slammer, describes the six-year relationship as being locked away. She speaks of being released from her locked house and being more trusting now that she is out of such a suffocating environment. Taylor proceeds to state her awareness regarding the problematic nature of her short-lived relationship after the long-term one. She questions “Am I bad or mad or wise?” and realizes she will be criticized by the public eye no matter what. 

Swift describes the sense of loss that she feels when she realizes that a relationship she thought was infinite was, in fact, finite. She recalls that her lover promised her that she was “the love of [his] life” However, the story goes that Swift was lied to and now has to “[comb] through the braid of lies”. Contradicting the title of the song, Taylor ends the piece by saying “You’re the loss of my life.”

 In Medieval times, people would seek out the philosopher’s stone, which could supposedly turn any substance into gold. Swift uses that context in this song to draw a connection to the meeting of two separate people so that they may be made whole. The Alchemy is littered with sports metaphors, which has led fans to believe the song is about Taylor Swift’s boyfriend Travis Kelce. 

The Black Dog is a lyrical stand-out on the album. In classic Swift style, Swift uses a thing or place, such as the red scarf, as a symbol for a deeper meaning. In this case, the Black Dog represents the pain of an ex-partner forgetting about you. Swift struggles to understand how this person does not miss her when it is all she can think about. Referencing a recurring theme of death and mortality, she begs for someone to “hire a priest to come and exorcize my demons/even if I die screaming.” While ‘The Black Dog’ is already a lyrical masterpiece, the experimentation in the sound makes it even more haunting. The transition between a gentle piano accompaniment and the heavy beat drop adds so much complexity to the song.

The Albatross has definite roots in Swift’s folklore and evermore eras. There is more of a focus on storytelling and gentle production than in typical pop music. An albatross is most commonly known as a seabird, but can also mean a problem that is impossible to fix. Swift uses both of these meanings within the song. In the first verse and chorus, she is villainized as a destroyer, and a “bad seed that kills the garden.” However, as her partner is misinformed and in danger, she “[spreads her] wings like a parachute” and “[swoops] in at the rescue, showing her true colors. However, the end of the song still returns to the theme of destruction, leaving listeners to question whether ‘the albatross’ is a force of good or a force of evil. Once again Swift demonstrates her skill of taking her personal experience and turning it into something more universal. Although the albatross can be linked to the rumors that have spread about her dating history, it also is a social commentary on the shaming of women.

How Did It End is so much more than just a classic breakup song. It is a depiction of the toll fame can take on a relationship and individual. Once again returning to the idea of death, Swift recounts the soul-crushing finale of a relationship as if it were an autopsy. However, while this should be a solitary event, the commentary from onlookers is all around her. She calls out “Come one come all,” since discourse about her love life is almost inevitable. Already it is painful to hear her reflect about the relationship, but it is devastating to see her be treated as a spectacle. In this, she calls out not just the media, but even her fans, who have sometimes ignored boundaries to speculate about her sexuality or take pictures of her in secret.

I hate it here is another heavy hitter on the album and one of the most relatable. Swift beautifully creates dreams of “lunar valleys” and “better planets” in her head, all because she is disappointed in her real life. This shows that, for Swift, poetry is not just an outlet, but a way to escape. It also serves as a gentle reminder that just because Swift is wildly successful, it does not mean she is happy.

Sampling parts of the lyrics and production from fan favorite “Death by a Thousand Cuts,” “I Look in People’s Windows is a gentle reminder of all that Swift cannot have. At first, she looks “in people’s windows/in case [someone from her past] is at their table.” However, after a while, she sees people living happy, normal lives. It is not hard to miss the irony, people look in her window constantly, preventing her from achieving this.

Cassandra is a famous figure in Greek Mythology as the daughter of King and Queen Priam and Hecuba. When Cassandra refused to sleep with the god Apollo, he cursed her forever. Cassandra would be able to tell the future, but no one would believe it. In this song, Swift draws a comparison between her life and Cassandra’s. During her 2016 feud with Kanye West and Kim Kardashian, where she was wrongfully blamed with an edited phone call, the public “filled [her cell] with snakes” rather than believe her.  However, this is just one example of the many times Swift was not believed because of her past.

In “The Bolter,” Swift uses a third-person narrative, similar to “The Last Great American Dynasty,” to tell a dynamic story. The Bolter is a nickname for a girl who constantly runs from relationships at the first sign of danger. As she leaves, “it [feels] like breathing,” and the cycle begins once again. This song in particular shows Swift’s talent for songwriting, since listeners can understand and sympathize with characters in less than four minutes. It also introduces an alternative direction towards happiness, which had previously been connected with relationships and love.

“Robin” is one of the most heart-wrenching songs in Swift’s entire discography. She depicts the small wonders of a child, from their “sweetness” to their favorite “dinosaurs.” Similar to “Never Grow Up,” the innocence of the child’s age is perfectly captured. Each small detail is sung full of love and care.

“The Manuscript” is the perfect conclusion to “The Tortured Poets Department,” as it signifies the end of these chapters in Swift’s life. There were relationships with older men, which left her yearning for “her mother’s bed.” Then, there were ones with boys her “own age,” which left her equally heartbroken, though in a different way. All of these eras have been documented throughout her catalog, or “the manuscript” of her life. But in the final, haunting moments of the song, Swift reminds listeners that “The story isn’t mine anymore.” The public has dissected it and speculated about the muses, fans, also known as swifties, have made stories about the song and shared countless different theories. Now, Swift’s songs are shaped and viewed through the people, which is how the best music should be.