I’ve Created a Monster: Taylor Swift’s Philosophy of Power in Castles Crumbling

The Basics:

Taylor Swift remembers a time when she ruled over a “golden age” at the start of what should have been a great “dynasty.” Now, the crowds have turned against her and her castle is crumbling. 

Literary Device: Chorographia

Chorographia is a literary device in which the poet describes a nation. In Castles Crumbling, Taylor Swift deploys chorographia to paint a vivid picture of a besieged kingdom. The infrastructure is falling apart: the “castle’s crumbling,” “bridges [are] burn]ing] to the ground,” and “smoke billows from… ships in the harbor. There is an angry mob “screaming at the palace front gates.” They “look at [Swift] like [she’s] a monster” while she hides “alone behind walls… / Falling down.” The town is burning and falling apart while the once-beloved queen cowers alone as the walls come down around her. The language evokes a sorrowful portrait of the kingdom, emphasizing that it is not just Swift who is impacted, but an entire nation. The medieval imagery also ties Castles Crumbling to other songs from her last two albums, including Love Story, White Horse, and Long Live. 

Analysis:

In Long Live, Swift deployed imagery from medieval legends into an allegory about her success as an artist. Swift’s allegory elevated her struggle and ultimate triumph to mythological proportions. In Castles Crumbling, Swift deploys the same fantasy vocabulary to depict her subsequent, equally mythological, failure. Swift begins the song by recalling a time period presumably shortly after Long Live. Crowds “used to cheer when they saw [her face] and “hang on her words.” Now, they storm her dilapidated palace as described above. 

While Swift once claims to be baffled by her “fall from grace” (“I don’t know how it could’ve ended this way,”) she mostly blames herself. Swift explains how she has alienated fans, friends, and enemies alike. Her behavior changed due to her success. “Power” not only “went to [her] head, but she lost all self control: “I couldn’t stop.” First, Swift alienated her fans. Assured that she had the “faith,” “trust,”, and “hope” of the crowd, Swift “pushed it too far.” Taking her fans for granted transformed them from a cheering mob to a screaming one. Additionally, Swift went too far in how she treated her enemies. She ‘held that grudge ‘til it tore [her] apart.” Finally, Swift even pushed away her friends: “Ones I love tried to help, so I ran them off.” The song is addressed to one of these friends. Swift repeatedly warns them off with: “you don’t want to know me / I will just let you down.” Swift recalls her own broken promises and ends the song by insisting that she should be left alone in her crumbling castle. 

In Long Life, Swift was a lovable underdog who triumphed over doubters and shared her success with the crowd. Only four songs later, she has allowed power to transform her into a gloomy tyrant. The crowd liked Swift when she was striving, but they do not like who she has become now that she is successful. Indeed, sitting “behind walls of regret,” Swift does not seem to like this version of herself either. Castles Crumbling is more than its vivid imagery, it is a philosophical reflection on the transformative ability of power. While Swift’s success is not portrayed as inherently bad, the subsequent power enabled Swift to become a monster and catalyzed the transformation of her kingdom from a realm of fairy tales into one of total societal collapse.