the lakes - Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift's songwriting shines in this song. It's in spite of everyone who has said that she writes one-dimensional break-up songs. “I've come too far to watch some name-dropping sleaze, tell me what are my words worth.” (Which by the way, this line is an epic reference to the poet William Wordsworth) The entire folklore album is about stories that she's created while drawing from her own life and this song is no exception. This song is about a character wanting to run away from the public eye to somewhere where she can be alone with the one she loves. She expresses that she isn't made for this life and that she wants to live as the poets did: sad and lonely by the Lakes.


[Verse 1]
Is it romantic how all my elegies eulogize me?
I'm not cut out for all these cynical clones
These hunters with cell phones

[Chorus]
Take me to the Lakes where all the poets went to die
I don't belong and my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I'm setting off, but not without my muse

[Verse 2]
What should be over burrowed under my skin
In heart-stopping waves of hurt
I've come too far to watch some name-dropping sleaze
Tell me what are my words worth

[Chorus]

[Bridge]
I want auroras and sad prose
I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet
'Cause I haven't moved in years
And I want you right here
A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground
With no one around to tweet it
While I bathe in cliffside pools
With my calamitous love and insurmountable grief

[Chorus]
No, not without you