Lyrical Analysis: Taylor Swift's "Love Story"

Taylor Swift is America's sweetheart. She's the blonde-bobbed, teenaged, country, pop-prodigy that has swept the Country Music Awards, the Grammys, and countless MTV awards. She even writes her own material. She's a Hollywood dream come true. At first a misunderstood, overly-dramatizing, clique-hating, outcast, Swift rose to triumphant fame in 2006 with her self-titled debut album. Off that debut come the chart toppers Love Story, You Belong With Me, and Tear Drops On My Guitar. Swift is quoted as saying "My goal is to never write songs that my fans can't relate to." Since her music is geared towards the youngish, jaded-yet-idealistic, needing-to-be-heard female demographic (me?), let's look at the lyrics.

Taylor Swift's "Love Story"
We were both young when I first saw you/ I close my eyes, and the flashback starts
I'm standing there/ On the balcony in summer air

Who do you know that has a balcony? Especially as a teen. Already Taylor Swift is not "speaking for me." But maybe it's a southern thing. Still keeping an open mind...

I see the lights, see the party, the ballgowns/ See you make your way through the crowd,
And say, "Hello"/ Little did I know

Parties with ballgowns in high school? Jealous. And how very Jerry MacGuire, he totally had her at "hello."

That you were Romeo/ You were throwing pebbles,
And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet."
And I was crying on the staircase/ Begging you, "Please don't go".

Of course it can't just be a guy that she loves, her young teenagéd love has to be painted in the likeness of Romeo. Fallible, suicidal Romeo.

I understand that girls (high school girls especially) are prone to draw upon tragic figures, like Juliet, when they feel slighted by love and circumstance. But it still irks me, especially in song form. You know why? Because a) Romeo and Juliet were supposed to be 13. 13! Taylor- you're young, but you ain't that young. And b) because of a combination of wacky hijinks and terrible miscommunication, Romeo and Juliet end up committing a double suicide. Call me crazy, but I'm not sure that that whole imagery is what Taylor is trying to paint for us. At least, one hopes.

While I don't recall Romeo throwing pebbles at Juliet's window, she does seem to be stretching the "Romeo & Juliet" metaphor to include more colorful imagery of things that might happen when you find yourself in a forbidden love. Guess I can't really hate on that. At least it appears like she's using her creative faculties. And Taylor did say that she had a balcony in the opening of the song, so it could feasibly have glass windows with which to have your lover throw pebbles against. She seems to have at the very least skimmed the book by ol' whatshisface, so I'll go along with the bigger metaphor. Sure, why not. Pebbles.

What I really want to know is why the boyfriend was excommunicated from "Juliet's" house. What kind of a crime would a teenager have to commit nowadays to be exiled from his girlfriend's house? What (reasonably) could have happened: cheated on a test; went to a party on the wrong side of the tracks; is simply a "bad seed". Vehicular manslaughter? Drugs in Mexico? 'What could have possibly happened?' Swift causes me to ask myself. Tragically, she never does get that far as to actually explaining the boy's troubled past. Maybe she forgot. Or maybe she simply figured that it wasn't an important part of the story to let the listener in on the background info. But it is important, Taylor, it is! Without any context, why should I care about your metaphors? I care; I do. I'm your target demographic! I just merely want to know why I should care, too.

Overt metaphor usage in Swift's "Love Story" for the whole Romeo/Juliet thing: 1

And I said, "Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone./ I'll be waiting, all that's left to do is run.
You be the prince, and I'll be the princess,/ It's a love story, baby, just say, 'yes'."

If you follow Shakespeare's logic, unrealistic expectations will only end in double suicide. Take heed, young Taylor. Also important, princes and princesses are an entirely different metaphor from Romeo and Juliet. Most princes and princesses had arranged marriages that were intended to unite kingdoms and promote royal agendas. Yes, now there's a love story to base your life around.

Overt metaphor usage: 2 (Princes and Princesses)

So I sneak out to the garden to see you,/ We keep quiet, 'cause we're dead if he knew,
So close your eyes,/ Escape this town for a little while.

Boy, wanting to escape the town because of a forbidden love and because no one understands you. Un. Der. Stood. As I can't really escape my own city by closing my eyes (and I don't have a garden, le sigh), perhaps I'm not the target demographic this song is pandering to in this part, but I can acknowledge that younger females have felt and will continue to feel this way throughout time. So while not worthy of the discriminating stamp of Flynn-deemed lyrical gold, it's not that bad, really.

Overt metaphor usage: 3. (They're dead if he knew, but would they really be dead? Literally slain? Probs not, Taytay.)

'Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter,
And my daddy said, "Stay away from Juliet."/ But you were everything to me,
Begging you, "Please don't go".

Overt metaphor usage: 4.5 (erroneous Scarlett Letter reference = 1.5 penalty.)

I may not have been the happiest with the Romeo and Juliet metaphor, but those emotions feel like puppy love compared to how I feel about the Scarlett Letter reference. Starcrossed lovers- fine. Ok. You're a teenage girl. But has the girl, or any person in her family or friend circle, even her staff for that matter, ever read the Scarlett Letter?

Let's review: the Scarlett Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne. Protagonist Hester Prynne committed adultery and then carried the resulting child while being marred by an outcast reputation and trying to repent for her sins. Hawthorne sure enjoyed himself a good love story.

It's not just the fact that the whole Scarlett Letter thing was just a completely ill-used metaphor, it is the idea that it written explicitly to be an interchangeable allusion with the Romeo and Juliet and prince/princesses lyrics. My IQ, it rolls along the floor, slowly, away from me.

"And I said, "Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone./ I'll be waiting, all that's left to do is run.
You be the prince, and I'll be the princess,/ It's a love story, baby, just say, 'yes'."


"Romeo, save me, they're trying to tell me how to feel./ This love is difficult, but it's real.
Don't be afraid, we'll make it of this mess,/ It's a love story, baby, just say, 'yes'."

Ah, a Juliet/princess/Hester Prynne in need of saving. How refreshingly original.

Well, I got tired of waiting,/ Wondering if you were ever coming around.
My faith in you was fading,/ When I met you on the outskirts of town.

Isn't true love supposed to be, I dunno... fade-proof? You got tired of waiting, you got bored? Maybe, just maybe, perhaps, it might not be true love. Just saying. Perhaps a Romeo and Juliet kind of love though, but we'll never really know because it was so short lived. Because they died, Taylor.

And I said, "Romeo, save me, I've been feeling so alone./ I keep waiting for you, but you never come.
Is this in my head,/ I don't know what to think,"

You knelt to the ground,/ And pulled out a ring and said,
"Marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to be alone./ I love you, and that's all I really know.
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress,/ It's a love story, baby just say yes."

Marriage? At 17? Boy, that escalated quickly. As a listener, my concerns changed gears from not knowing what happened to banish the boyfriend, to wonder what on earth could have possibly changed with the dad. For one to go from a banishéd level to marriage requiring parental consent because you're underage is... well, I wouldn't call that a small change. Is the last part all one big metaphor? Who knows. I'm confused enough as it is.

"We were both young when I first saw you..."

Aw. You're still kinda young, but ok: you were inarguably younger.

So, Taylor Swift's a "Love Story": a big ol' barrel of clichés rolled up in a small hill devoid of all background or context. Served with a side of literary allusions, undercooked. But maybe it will have the literary awakening effect of the Stephanie Meyer Twilight series, where book publishers started marking Brönte's Wuthering Heights as Edward & Bella's favorite book. If it gets more people to read the classics, then I'm all for it. Maybe then all those other listeners will be able to understand the rage I feel when I hear that Scarlett Letter line.