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 Since breaking up, the full-bodied physical experience of another person has been replaced by a flattened, empty version.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.

As in Never Grow Up, time in Innocent is a double-edged sword. Although growing up is terrible, it also provides healing and growth.

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

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.

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

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.