The Basics:  Six months after her relationship has ended, Taylor Swift sings “come back, come back, come back to meee heeee” to her ex....

We know from Swift’s later work that she was a noted scholar of Greek philosophy during this era of her life “You know how to ball / I know Aristotle” (So High School). It is thus worth digging into Swift name dropping a group of people who were deeply upset by her success – the world-denying philosophers known as the Cynics.

Swift’s relationship was a physical experience. Since breaking up, the full-bodied physical experience of another person has been replaced by a flattened, empty version. For example, Swift sings: “I’ll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep.” When they were together, Swift saw a three-dimensional, moving, human being. After the break-up, she will now see him only through static, pixelated representations on an instagram feed.

Our chronophobic prophetess Taylor Swift informs a baby that her life is only going to get worse from here.

In Back To December, Taylor Swift explores decay over time.

Swift and Urban's time apart is not represented using discrete moments in linear time, but as a series of oppositions blurred together.

In We Were Happy, Swift reflects with sadness on what it means to play the role of a setting sun in someone else's life.

Swift’s use of ekphrasis to describe a home video elevates this domestic scene to the realm of high art.

In Forever & Always, Swift begins to explore a theme that she will perfect in her magnum opus All Too Well.

Swift addresses all six dimensions of wellness (physical, emotional, occupational, intellectual, spiritual and social) in Tell Me Why.

The Basics In Fifteen, a wizened Taylor Swift addresses her fifteen-year-old self. Now eighteen, Swift has acquired the wisdom that comes...

Taylor Swift Scholar investigates whether Taylor Swift is actually fearless in the song fearless. Spoiler: she's not.

Taylor Swift introduces herself to the world through a collection of songs that consider the nuances of what it means to know.

In Our Song, noted music theorist Taylor Swift grapples with the question “What is Music?”

Swift, a metaphysician, uses Mary’s narrative as an opportunity to revisit the theme from a universe where the relationship did not end.

Recap: Picture to Burn is Taylor Swift’s second song and first revenge anthem — the first foray into a genre that will become a Swiftian...

Swift’s first song, Tim McGraw, uses a complex structure to reflect on whether past relationships stay in the past or live on in memories.