Teardrops All Grown Up: Hidden Desire in Taylor Swift’s I Can See You

The Basics:

Taylor Swift  repeatedly imagines making out with one of her coworkers. She wonders what he would do “If he only knew.”

Analysis: 

In Teardrops On My Guitar, a boy walks past Taylor Swift in the hallway at school. Swift wonders if he can see how she truly feels. Young Swift’s song relies heavily on the language of eyes and looking, ultimately making a point about the difference between looking and seeing you. 

In I Can See You, a man walks past Taylor Swift in the hallway at work. Swift wonders if he knows that she can see him. Adult Swift’s song deploys the language of eyes and sight to describe scenarios where no such sight occurs. I Can See You reads as a grown up version of Teardrops On My Guitar. The school has been replaced by the workplace and Swift’s secret thoughts about her colleague inspire sexy thoughts rather than despair. 

In I Can See You, Swift begins by declaring “I can see ya” and “I’ve been watchin’ you for ages” before immediately trying to ignore what she sees: “I spend my time tryin’ not to feel it.” Throughout the song, Swift will deploy the language of sight and other physical senses in scenarios where they do not actually occur or do not have an effect. Most prominently, Swift uses the concept of sight to describe a variety of hypothetical sexy scenarios, repeating the phrase “I could see you” nine times. She could see him: “up against the wall with me,” “throw[ing] his jacket on the floor,” “being my addiction,” and “mak[ing] me want you even more.” Of course, none of these scenarios involve actually sight – they are mere figments of her imagination. 

Additionally, Swift also describes how there are “watchful eyes on us” but also how the couple can prevent those eyes from actually seeing: “move fast and keep quiet,” “never make a sound,” “hide away.” Swift states that she “won’t ever tell” and implores him to imagine him as a secret mission. The eyes and ears of observers are ineffective when Swift denies them sights and sounds. Further, Swift seems to enjoy the prospect of sneaking around and not being seen. 

Thus far, Swift has declined to share her vision with her work associate. Instead, she engages in a sexy thought experiment, wondering, “What would you do, baby if you only knew” before moaning “Oh, oh, oh.” Similarly, Swift declares: “You won’t believe half the things I see inside my head / Wait ‘till you see half the things that haven’t happened yet.” These statements are a far cry from Swift bemoaning the lack of perception of the  boys in her past, including Drew in Teardrops or the young man in You Belong With Me. Swift is unbothered that her esteemed colleague doesn’t know – or rather, she is bothered in a different sense. Grown up and more confident in both her feelings and her own allure, the friction between Swift’s inner feelings and external reality has transformed from a source of pain into a source of arousal. Instead of crying with her guitar, Swift uses her inner eye to rehearse future encounters – and she enjoys the anticipation. 

Literary Device: Rhetorical Question

Taylor Swift asks twelve questions throughout the course of I Can See You, none of which she bothers to answer, deploying a device called rhetorical question. Swift’s rhetorical questions always begin with the phrase “What would you do” and include:

• What would you do if I went to touch you now?

• What would you do if they never found us out?

• What would you do, baby, if you only knew

The final question is repeated five times total. Rhetorical questions are another way to withhold her vision. In keeping with the theme of the song, Swift makes the explicit implicit and makes the listener infer what happens next – imagining their own sexy answers.