The Basics:
Taylor Swift describes a date by proclaiming over and over again that it was a fairytale.
Literary Device: Epizeuxis
Epizeuxis is a literary device in which the author uses excessive repetition for emphasis. In Today was a Fairytale, Swift repeats “Today was a fairytale” sixteen times, often two or three times in a row, as in the transition from the first verse to the second:
Today was a fairytale
Today was a fairytale
Today was a fairytale
Furthermore, the phrase often appears in the middle of another thought, unannounced:
It must have been the way
Today was a fairytale
It must have been the way
Today was a fairytale
Analysis
Sometimes when an author asserts something too vehemently, the astute reader must ask if she doth protest too much. Swift is committed to convincing both herself and the listener that today was perfect, but she provides shockingly few details about the date and instead just repeats the phrase “today was a fairytale’ over and over again. A close inspection of the details that she does provide reveals that it may not have actually been a perfect date.
First of all, “I wore a dress / you wore a dark gray t-shirt.” In which fairytale does the prince show up to rescue the princess wearing a t-shirt. Especially when she put in the effort to wear a nice dress! Second, Swift prioclaims “time slows down / whenever you’re around.” Time famously flies when one is having fun. Swift’s date is thus portrayed as both too casual AND boring. Finally, the lyrics provide plenty of examples of falsehoods and exaggerations. Swift’s date “told [her she] was pretty / when [she] looked like a mess.” He lies to her, but it is a pleasant lie – a shinier version of the truth. Swift lies as well when she indicates “everything you say is right’ after having previously indicated that she knew he was lying.
Swift continues the theme of presenting a shinier version of the truth by hyperbolically proclaiming that the way he kissed her made her “feel this magic in the air” and that his smile “takes [her] to another planet.” Swift is committed to presenting this date as a fairytale – but that is not necessarily a good thing. While fairytales are magical and have happy endings, they are also made up. Swift’s story of a date filled with magic, princes, and space travel feels empty compared to other songs from her oeuvre that mention ordinary events from real relationships.