My Favorite Taylor Swift Lyrics

I still remember the day I clicked play on Taylor Swift’s debut single Tim McGraw. I was browsing iTunes, looking for music, when I stumbled on an unfamiliar new song I thought at first glance was released by Tim McGraw. I remember thinking to myself, “Tim McGraw wrote a song called Taylor Swift? That’s kind of a weird title.” But after hitting play, I quickly realized it wasn’t a Tim McGraw song at all, rather the debut single of up-and-coming Taylor Swift, a young teenage singer-songwriter with a diary, a guitar, and a dream to become the next big country superstar. From that very moment, I’ve been all-in on Taylor Swift — and what a privilege it’s been to grow up alongside Swift and her music for the last (almost) 20 years.

When people ask me, “What’s so special about Taylor Swift?” or “Why is Taylor Swift your favorite artist?”… the answer is quite simple: Taylor Swift is the best storyteller and lyricist of our generation. The way she can take a moment, a memory, or an emotion she’s feeling, weave it into the lyrics of a song, and make it feel personal for millions of people who aren’t just her is a craft that so few can do so well for so long. The fact that Swift has multi-decade success in doing this, with no signs of slowing down anytime soon, is a truly remarkable feat, one that will no doubt be studied closely in the many decades that follow her historic run. And with her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl, set to release in just over 24 hours, the buzz and excitement of new music from the great Taylor Swift has the world waiting in anticipation once again. That’s power in music.

In the weeks leading up to a new Taylor Swift album, I always enjoy taking a trip down memory lane, listening back through the discography of my favorite artist. Wrapping up my last listens before The Life of a Showgirl, I found myself hitting pause on a number of songs, thinking about all the lyrics I’ve come to love over the years — some rooted in nostalgia and sentimental value, others in the emotional gravity they carry. Whether it be her country music days, crossover eras, years of full on pop, or the most recent albums of a more folky synth-pop, one thing about Taylor Swift is her consistent ability to deliver lyrics that make you feel something, no matter the genre that plays through your speakers. As an OG fan, Swift’s lyrics have defined the soundtrack of my life from ages 14 to 33 and counting. And that’s why I wrote today’s post — to share my favorite Taylor Swift lyrics from each of her current albums Debut through The Tortured Poets Department. Let’s jump in — headfirst, fearless of course :)

Debut

Teardrops On My Guitar: “He's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do / He’s the time taken up, but there’s never enough / And he’s all that I need to fall into” — takes me back to those angsty teenage years, singing this song in my bedroom, thinking about my “Drew”

Cold As You: “Just walk away, ain’t no use defending / Words that you will never say” — scratches an itch in my brain; I remember sharing this lyric on my Facebook page back in the day

Our Song: “Our song is the way you laugh / The first date, “Man I didn’t kiss her and I should have.” — reminds me of my first real date with Alex, watching Green Bay play Chicago in the 2011 NFC Championship Game; when the Packers won, we didn’t know whether to hug, high five, or celebrate with a kiss!

Fearless

Fifteen: “I’ve found time can heal most anything / And you just might find who you’re supposed to be” — no one knows who they’re supposed to be at 15, but what a privilege it is to grow up and become someone you’re proud of

Love Story: “We were both young when I first saw you / I close my eyes and the flashback starts / I’m standing there” — a nostalgic kind of memory, thinking back to those early days of dating the guy who’d later become my husband

White Horse: “I’m gonna find someone someday / Who might actually treat me well / This is a big world, that was a small town / There in my rearview mirror disappearing now” — life’s so much bigger than what happens in a small town

Breathe: “People are people and sometimes we change our minds / But it’s killin’ me to see you go after all this time” — makes me think about friendships I’ve lost over the years, some of those friends I thought would be with me a lot longer than just a phase of life

The Best Day: “Now I know why all the trees change in the fall / I know you were on my side even when I was wrong / And I love you for givin’ me your eyes / For staying back and watchin’ me shine / And I didn’t know if you knew / So I’m taking this chance to say / That I had the best day with you today” — can’t hear this song without thinking of my mom

Speak Now

Back To December: “It turns out freedom ain’t nothing but missin’ you / Wishin’ I’d realized what I had when you were mine / I go back to December, turn around and make it alright / I go back to December, turn around and change my own mind / I go back to December all the time” — such a devastating, yet relatable lyric :(

Never Grow Up: “Take pictures in your mind of your childhood room / Memorize what it sounded like when your dad gets home / Remember the footsteps, remember the words said / And all your little brother’s favorite songs / I just realized everything I have is, someday, gonna be gone” — on growing up in a close-knit family

Last Kiss: “So I’ll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep / And I feel you forget me like I used to feel you breathe” — I’ve always thought this song was one of the saddest; an emotional, reflective lyric

Timeless: “I’m gonna love you when our hair is turnin’ gray / We’ll have a cardboard box of photos of the life we’ve made” — our wedding song; we love taking pictures and documenting our adventures and the lyrics here always remind me of the box of photos we’re going to have to show our daughter someday

Red

Red: “Memorizing him was as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song” — the lyrical metaphors are so well executed in Red, one of my favorite Taylor Swift songs

Treacherous: “And I’d be smart to walk away / But you’re quicksand” — I love the quicksand analogy here

All Too Well: “And you call me up again / Just to break me like a promise / So casually cruel in the name of being honest / I’m a crumpled up piece of paper lying here / ‘Cause I remember it all, all, all / Too well” — one of the best lines Swift has ever written, delivered with such emotion in the peak moment of crescendo

The Last Time: “You find yourself at my door / And just like all those times before / You wear your best apology / But I was there to watch you leave” — young love situationships…

Holy Ground: “I left a note on the door with a joke we’d made” — a silly nostalgic moment circa Red Tour era when Alex bought us tickets and surprised me with a trip to Chicago to see my favorite artist; he was giving me clues along the way and one of them was sticking a post-it note on my door that said “Joke we’d made”… and I still didn’t connect the dots haha

Better Man: “I wish you were a better man / I wonder what we would’ve become if you were a better man / We might still be in love if you were a better man / You would’ve been the one if you were a better man” — file under: songs I wish I wrote, because damn, this is one of those songs

1989

Blank Space: “But you’ll come back each time you leave / ‘Cause, darling, I’m a nightmare dressed like a daydream” — saw someone say once that this was a cheesy, cringy lyric, but I wholeheartedly disagree; it’s witty and clever, especially given the context with which it was written

This Love: “When you’re young, you just run / But you come back to what you need” — more on growing up, maturing, and realizing what (and who) is most important in life

Clean: “The drought was the very worst / When the flowers that we’d grown together died of thirst” — makes me think about how rewarding it is to persevere and get through the toughest of times in a relationship, and how hard it really is to build a strong foundation of love and trust

Wonderland: “I reached for you, but you were gone / I knew I had to go back home / You searched the world for somethin’ else / To make you feel like what we had / And in the end, in Wonderland, we both went mad” — a clever play on Alice in Wonderland!

New Romantics: “We cry tears of mascara in the bathroom / Honey, life is just a classroom” — in the end, we’re all just girls, amirite?

reputation

End Game: “Reputation precedes me, they told you I’m crazy / I swear I don’t love the drama, it loves me” — this one I love because it’s snarky and oh so relatable

I Did Something Bad: “They’re burning all the witches, even if you aren’t one / They got their pitchforks and proof, their receipts and reasons” — such a great line metaphorically speaking

Dancing With Our Hands Tied: “I could’ve spent forever with your hands in my pockets / Picture of your face in an invisible locket / You said there was nothin’ in the world that could stop it / I had a bad feelin’” — the idea of starting something new, but knowing it’s doomed from the very start

New Year’s Day: “Please, don’t ever become a stranger / Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere” — I remember Swift herself talking about writing this lyric and how it was one of her favorites that she reserved for just the right moment; I love the way she ended up incorporating it into this song

Lover

Lover: “We could leave the Christmas lights up ‘til January / And this is our place, we make the rules / And there’s a dazzling haze, a mysterious way about you, dear / Have I known you twenty seconds or twenty years?” — when you have a relationship that transcends the test of time, the years blend so beautifully together, making it hard to imagine you haven’t spent an eternity with your partner by your side

Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince: “You play stupid games, you win stupid prizes” — but where’s the lie?

Death By A Thousand Cuts: “I ask the traffic lights if it’ll be alright / They say, “I don’t know”” — I don’t know why, but I’ve always had an affinity for this lyric

Daylight: “Luck of the draw only draws the unlucky” — another one of those lines that always stands out to me when I’m listening to the Lover album

folklore

cardigan: “Cause I knew you / Steppin’ on the last train / Marked me like a bloodstain, I / I knew you / Tried to change the ending / Peter losing Wendy, I” — a perfect analogy to the Peter Pan story

my tears ricochet: “You had to kill me, but it killed you just the same / Cursing my name, wishing I stayed / You turned into your worst fears / And you’re tossing out blame, drunk on this pain / Crossing out the good years / And you’re cursing my name, wishing I stayed / Look at how my tears ricochet” — oozes loss and pain and the grieving process; you won’t convince me this song wasn’t about her stolen masters

august: “Wanting was enough / For me, it was enough / To live for the hope of it all / Cancel plans just in case you’d call” — feels like a line pulled directly from the life of Jen the teenager really

peace: “I’d give you my sunshine, give you my best / But the rain is always gonna come if you’re standin’ with me” — makes me think a lot about how a relationship is never just rainbows and butterflies, it’s about navigating the rainy days too

evermore

tolerate it: “I made you my temple, my mural, my sky / Now I’m beggin’ for footnotes in the story of your life” — wrecks me every time

happiness: “There’ll be happiness after you / But there was happiness because of you too / Both of these things can be true / There is happiness” — the takeaway here is that you live and you learn…

ivy: “So yeah, it’s a fire / It’s a goddamn blaze in the dark / And you started it / You started it / So yeah, it’s a war / It’s the goddamn fight of my life / And you started it / You started it” — reminiscent of a quote I love from The Arisocats: “"Ladies do not start fights but they can finish them”

marjorie: “I should’ve asked you questions / I should’ve asked you how to be / Asked you to write it down for me / Should’ve kept every grocery store receipt / ‘Cause every scrap of you would be taken from me / Watched as you signed your name Marjorie” — a reminder that we’re only alive with those we love for a finite amount of time and that every second really does count

evermore: “I replay my footsteps on each stepping stone / Trying to find the one where I went wrong / Writing letters / Addressed to the fire” — such a common feeling, reflecting upon on a situation, getting lost in trying to recount where it all unraveled

Midnights

Maroon: “How the hell did we lose sight of us again? / Sobbing with your head in your hands / Ain’t that the way shit always ends?” — haven’t we all been here before?

You’re On Your Own, Kid: “‘Cause there were pages turned with the bridges burned / Everything you lose is a step you take” — probably my favorite Taylor Swift lyric all-time

Dear Reader: “Dear reader, when you aim at the devil / make sure you don’t miss” — file under: life lessons

You’re Losing Me: “How long could we be a sad song / ‘Til we were too far gone to bring back to life?” — quintessential Swift songwriting

The Tortured Poets Department

So Long, London: “And you say I abandoned the ship / But I was going down with it / My white knuckle dying grip” — has taken on so many different meanings for me over the last year, the idea of abandoning something you used to love

Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?: “You wouldn’t last an hour in the asylum where they raised me” — because we’re all just a little bit crazy, yeah?

loml: “Our field of dreams engulfed in fire / Your arson’s match, your somber eyes / And I’ll still see it until I die / You’re the loss of my life” — I believe this to be the saddest Taylor Swift lyric; such a gut punch, one that gives me legit chills every time I hear it

I Can Do It With a Broken Heart: “‘Cause I’m a real tough kid / I can handle my shit / They said, “Babe, you gotta fake it ‘til you make it” and I did / Lights, camera, bitch, smile / Even when you wanna die” — it’s giving “Nevertheless, she persisted”

The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived: “Were you sent by someone who wanted me dead? / Did you sleep with a gun underneath our bed? / Were you writin’ a book? Where you a sleeper cell spy? / In fifty years, will all this be declassified? / And you’ll confess why you did it and I’ll say / “Good riddance” / ‘Cause it wasn’t sexy once it wasn’t forbidden / I would’ve died for your sins, instead, I just died inside / And you deserve prison, but you won’t get time” — a jam-packed bridge with such emotion; one of the best in my opinion

The Black Dog: “Now I wanna sell my house / And set fire to all my clothes / And hire a priest to come and exorcise my demons / Even if I die screaming / And I hope you hear it” — another vividly painted, emotional line delivered with such precision

imgonnagetyouback: “Told my friends I hate you, but I love you just the same / Pick your poison, babe, I’m poison either way” — like choosing Heads or Tails on a coin flip without realizing the coin is the same on both sides

How Did It End?: “Say it once again with feeling / How the death rattle breathing / Silenced as the soul was leaving / The deflation of our dreaming / Leaving me bereft and reeling / My beloved ghost and me / Sitting in a tree / D-Y-I-N-G” — whew… this lyric just hurts

I Hate It Here: “I hate it here so I will go to secret gardens in my mind / People need a key to get to, the only one is mine” — escapism!

Robin: “The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean / You’ll learn to bounce back just like your trampoline” — they could never make me hate you, Robin; makes me think about the naivety of a child and how it morphs into perspective in adulthood

I honestly think there’s a lyric to love in every Taylor Swift song. Trimming it down to any kind of “favorite” is a feat in and of itself, especially when the content is so good across the board. By my count, I covered less than 20% of Swift’s discography in this post… isn’t it crazy to think there are so many more words I could’ve shared?

What are some of your favorite Taylor Swift lyrics? Do we have any in common?

Check out my favorite lyrics playlist on Spotify which includes the full song versions of the above mentioned songs:

My Favorite Taylor Swift Lyrics

PS — It’s so exciting to think about all the new lyrics coming this Friday, October 3rd! The Life of a Showgirl is almost here, yay :)

Enjoy!

JBW