Top 22 Most Poetic Taylor Swift Lyrics

We were enchanted to create a selection of the Top 22 Most Poetic Taylor Swift Lyrics and definitively rank them, including her latest album ‘Midnights’ Till Dawn Edition. Swift is undeniably one of the greatest lyricists of our generation and her long discography proves that and then some. Taylor’s smithery surpasses the borders of the music world perfectly bleeding into stellar poetry and storytelling.

Most Poetic Taylor Swift Lyrics

1. “Take the words for what they are: A dwindling, mercurial high / A drug that only worked the first few hundred times” “And that’s the thing about illicit affairs/And clandestine meetings and stolen stares/They show their truth one single time/But they lie and they lie and they lie/A million little times.”– “Illicit Affairs” from “Folklore” 

2. Your Midas touch on the Chevy door / November flush and your flannel cure / This dorm was once a madhouse / I made a joke, Well, it’s made for me (“Champagne Problems” from Evermore).

In the myth, after being gifted with golden hands by Dionysus, Midas was not able to eat and interact with other people. Because everything he touched became gold.

Related: Idioms from Greek mythology

3. “It was the best of times, the worst of crimes” (Getaway car from Reputation). If you are an avid reader there’s a chance you picked up on her Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens reference on the absolute pop perfection that is Getaway Car from Reputation.

4.“I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / Now I’m begging for footnotes in the story of your life”.

“Tolerate It” from “Evermore”. Taylor said she was reading Rebecca by Daphne Du Maurier when she wrote this song.

5. All Too Well is somewhat of an anthem for swifties, and it’s for good reason. It is widely considered one of Taylor’s best work, the entire song is a masterpiece.

“You call me up again just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of being honest” – “All Too Well” from “Red” 

“Time won’t fly, it’s like I’m paralyzed by it / I’d like to be my old self again, but I’m still trying to find it / After plaid shirt days and nights when you made me your own / Now you mail back my things and I walk home alone” – “All Too Well” from “Red” 

“You kept me like a secret, but I kept you like an oath” – “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” from “Red (Taylor’s Version)”

And did the twin flame bruise paint you blue? / Just between us, did the love affair maim you, too?
(“All Too Well (10 Minute Version)” from Red (Taylor’s Version)

 “They say all’s well that ends well, but I’m in a new hell / Every time you double-cross my mind” – “All Too Well (10 Minute Version) (Taylor’s Version)” from “Red (Taylor’s Version)”

The wordplay. William Shakespeare would be proud.

Related: Shakespeare Idioms

6. “The night you danced like you knew our lives would never be the same / You held your head like a hero / On a history book page / It was the end of a decade / But the start of an age”.

– “Long Live” from “Speak Now”

7. “The drought was the very worst/ When the flowers that we’d grown together died of thirst/ It was months and months of back and forth/ You’re still all over me/ Like a wine-stained dress I can’t wear anymore.”

— Clean, from “1989”.

8. “You held your pride like you should have held me” – “The Story of Us” from “Speak Now” 

9. “You said it was a great love, one for the ages / But if the story’s over, why am I still writing pages?”

– “Death By a Thousand Cuts” from “Lover”

10. “They told me all of my cages were mental / So I got wasted like all my potential”

“This is Me Trying” from “Folklore”

11.“The road not taken looks real good now” – “‘Tis the Damn Season” from “Evermore” 

12. “With every guitar string scar on my hand / I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover” “And you’ll save all your dirtiest jokes for me / And at every table, I’ll save you a seat, lover

“Lover” from “Lover”

13. “I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace / ‘Cause when I’d fight, you used to tell me I was brave –

“My Tears Ricochet” from “Folklore”

14. I think I’ve seen this film before / And I didn’t like the ending / You’re not my homeland anymore / So what am I defending now? –

“Exile” from “Folklore”

Related: The 39 Most Iconic Poems in the English Language

15. “Back then I swore I was gonna marry him someday but I realized some bigger dreams of mine / And Abigail gave everything she had to a boy who changed his mind/ we both cried” –

“Fifteen” from “Fearless”

16. “My castle crumbled overnight / I brought a knife to a gunfight / They took the crown but it’s alright” – “Call It What You Want”

from “Reputation”

17. We had a tie here “I had a marvelous time ruining everything” – “The Last Great American Dynasty” from “Folklore” and “I’ll stare directly at the sun, but never in the mirror.’ Ouch!” Anti-hero from “Midnights”.

18. “While he was doing lines and crossing all of mine / someone told his white collar crimes to the FBI” – “I don’t dress for women/ I don’t dress for men Lately, I’ve been dressin’ for revenge– “

Vigilante S—” from “Midnights”

19. “My boy was a montage — a slow-motion, love potion.”- “He was sunshine, I was midnight rain/ he wanted it comfortable/ I wanted that pain/ He wanted a bride/ I was making my own name/ Chasing that fame/ He stayed the same/ All of me changed like midnight. —

Midnight Rain from “Midnights”

20. “You were the one that I loved/ Don’t need another metaphor, it’s simple enough/ A wrinkle in time like the crease by your eyes/ This is why they shouldn’t kill off the main guy/ Dreams of your hair and your stare and sense of belief/ In the good in the world, you once believed in me/ And I felt you and I held you for a while/ Bet I could still melt your world/

Argumentative, antithetical dream girl. From Hits Different “Midnights”

21. “Devils roll the dice, Angels roll their eyes” “And I screamed for whatever it’s worth ‘I love you,’ ain’t that the worst thing you ever heard?”

Cruel Summer from “Lover”.

22. “You wanting me tonight feels impossible/ But it’s comin’ down, no sound, it’s all around/ Like snow on the beach”

Snow on the beach from “Midnights”

Honorable mentions

“So put me in the basement, when I want the penthouse of your heart.” – “Bejeweled”

“Karma is a cat, purring in my lap ‘cause it loves me.” – “Karma” Meredith, Olivia, and Benjamin know this best. If there’s one thing Swift is going to do, it’s remind us that she’s a proud cat lady! 

” I’ve been the archer/ I’ve been the prey/

Who could ever leave me baby?/ But who could stay? –

“The archer” to remind us that she is a Sagittarius.

And…

“What must it be like to grow up that beautiful?/ With your hair falling into place like dominoes/

My mind turns your life into folklore/ I can’t dare to dream about you anymore.

Gold rush, evermore. To remind everyone that an artist will always find a muse, for better or for worse.

Read about Types of Poems here!