Song Analysis of “the lakes” by Taylor Swift

Isn't it romantic how she keeps writing sad songs about dying?

Introduction

On August 18, 2020, Taylor Swift released “the lakes” as an exclusive track on the deluxe edition of folklore. At its core, this song is about escaping the circumstances of your current reality and slipping away to a place in your mind where you can find peace. “the lakes” as both a song and a concept doesn’t necessarily represent a physical place – though the song is inspired by the Lake District and the Lake Poets of the Romantic movement. Rather, it’s about stealing away from what the world expects of you in favor of embracing something more raw, honest, and vulnerable.

Historical Background & Context

The Lake District was home to some of the most famous poets of the late eighteenth and nineteenth-century Romantic movement. Famous writers such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Lord Byron, William Blake, and Robert Southey were inspired by the splendor of the lakes. They wrote some of their most well-known works during this period. Swift has a special connection to this area, having spent time in 2019 near Windermere in the Lake District of Cumbria.

The life of William Wordsworth and his period living as a recluse with his sister and fellow poet, Dorothy Wordsworth, seem to interest Swift most. Speaking with her producer Jack Antonoff during the ‘Folklore: the long pond studio sessions', Swift describes the lakes as a testament to what she wanted to escape from in her life.

“I went to William Wordsworth's grave and just sat there and I was like, wow you went and did it. You went away and you kept writing and you didn't subscribe to the things that were killing you. Really the overarching feeling I felt when I was writing the Lakes was, I may not be able to go to the Lakes right now, or to go anywhere, but I'm going there in my head and this escape plan is working,” – Taylor Swift, Long Pond Studio Sessions

This song blends past and future, regret and desire, dreams and reality. It’s about wishing you could return to a time when you felt true sense of peace in your heart. And in a way, holding out the hope that someday you can find that feeling again.

“the lakes” Song Meaning and Lyrics Deep-Dive

Is it romantic how all my elegies eulogize me?

In the opening lines of this song, Swift muses about how romantic it feels that all of her songs (elegies) tell the story of her death (eulogies). An elegy is a poem that grieves someone who has died and can be written at any point after that person’s passing. A eulogy is specifically a speech written to be read at someone’s funeral. In these lines, Swift is speaking about the macabre beauty in writing about your death before it happens. She asks: “Isn’t it romantic how all my songs are love letters to my death?”

Of course, she could also be referencing the infamous death of her career that came in 2016 and inspired the songs on her reputation album. (The old Taylor can’t come to the phone. Why? Oh, because she’s dead!) Regardless, she loves writing about death.

I'm not cut out for all these cynical clones
These hunters with cell phones

The next few lines help us understand what she may be referring to as her death when she talks about the cynical clones and hunters with cell phones. These two lines refer to aspects of her life as an entertainer. “Cynical clones” might refer to her critics who engage with her work, or she might be layering commentary on the industry’s practice of churning out identical teen pop stars and replacing them once they get “too old.”

“In the ’90s and ’00s, it seems like the music industry just said: ‘OK, let’s take a bunch of teenagers, throw them into a fire, and watch what happens. By the time they’ve accumulated enough wisdom to do their job effectively, we’ll find new teenagers.’ — Taylor Swift for her Time Magazine Person of the Year Interview

Here, we get a sense that this song has something to do with Swift’s relationship with the music industry and fame, in addition to a romantic interest. She’s telling us that she’s been writing sad songs about the (impending?) death of her career (retirement?) for years now, and though the concept itself is sad, she finds a sense of peace in it.

Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die
I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you

Swift sings about wanting to be whisked away to the lakes where all the famous poets and writers before her went to meet their end. She might be telling us that she dreams of the day when she can leave behind the persona of Taylor Swift™ and spend her days writing and tinkering with her work, much like William Wordsworth did.

Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I'm setting off, but not without my muse

It’s also worth noting that she’s singing to another person – the second person “you” – who she tells us also doesn’t belong in the world of clones and cellphones. This tells us that while Swift has found kindred spirits in her current circumstances, and that while her dream is to leave it all behind, she’s not leaving without her muse. It’s important to note that while most people think of a muse as a person, muses can be anything that inspires them, like past experiences, places, song, works of art, etc.

What should be over burrowed under my skin
In heart-stopping waves of hurt
I've come too far to watch some namedropping sleaze
Tell me what are my words worth

This set of lyrics cements for me that “the lakes” is a song about Taylor Swift’s need to reclaim her life’s work before she retires. “the lakes” was released almost one year to the day from Taylor Swift announcing on Good Morning America that she plans to re-record her music. I believe the muse is not just a person but also her early music.

This is reinforced by the line about a “namedropping sleaze” telling her what her words are worth (poking fun at Scooter Braun who had a hand in purchasing her masters, but also a reference to Williams Wordsworth). Swift tells us that she can’t retire to the solitude of the lakes until she has full ownership of her previous work.

I want auroras and sad prose

Swift tells us she longs for auroras and sad prose, almost certainly referring to a time, place, or feeling she longs to return to. Taylor Swift’s only other reference to auroras in her discography comes in Midnights on her track “Snow on the Beach” when she sings: “This scene feels like what I once saw on a screen / I searched ‘aurora borealis green’ / I've never seen someone lit from within / Blurring out my periphery.”

From this connection, we can assume that the auroras represent a love interest that Swift still thinks about – possibly the muse she mentioned wanting to escape to the lakes with earlier in the song. She sings of yearning for that source of light, as well as a desire to sing her sad songs (prose) amidst the comfort and solitude of nature.

I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet
'Cause I haven't moved in years

Swift also sings about how she wants to watch wisteria grow over her bare feet. In literature, wisteria represents love, loss, transformation, and the passage of time. We see this in her lyrics when she tells us that she hasn’t moved in years–implying the wisteria has had plenty of time to grow over Swift’s feet before the writing of folklore.

And I want you right here
A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground
With no one around to tweet it

After singing about how she hasn’t moved in years, Swift sings about wanting her muse to join her. She describes how their love was a red rose that bloomed despite the freezing ground of her heart. And more importantly, how this love was something that came to be away from the prying eyes of social media and Hollywood.

Not only does this lyric refer back to the start of the song with her line about “hunters with cell phones,” it also calls back to her reputation era and album. In “Dancing With Our Hands Tied,” Taylor Swift sings: “My love had been frozen deep blue but you painted me golden.” She also references frozen ground in folklore in the song “Hoax” when she sings: “My winless fight, this has frozen my ground.”

The theme of frozen love focuses on a relationship that she lost during the 1989 era. A tragic love that left her frozen with a heart unable to be thawed. Swift has several songs that center on the story of “a girl who stayed forever in the exact spot where her heart was broken, completely frozen in time” – two of her most popular – “right where you left me” and “it’s time to go” – are featured on folklore’s sister album, evermore.

While I bathe in cliffside pools
With my calamitous love and insurmountable grief

In the next few lines, Swift sings about what she desires to do with this muse once they get to the lakes. And it seems all she wants to do is cleanse herself of the past in a cliffside pool – an interesting parallel to “Hoax” once again when she sings: “Stood on the cliffside screaming, “Give me a reason.” Here, we’re shown the contradictions that exist in both nature and love. The cliffside exists as both a sanctuary to take refuge from the world and cleanse yourself of your pain, as well as a place you might consider jumping from if that pain ever got so unbearable, you decided you couldn’t live with it anymore. Similarly, love is framed as something that’s both healing and disastrous.

Word nerd moment: the choice of the word “insurmountable” grief is so delicious for a few reasons. Not only does it contain the word ‘mount’ – which we can link to the mountains and cliffside nature imagery found within this song. But it also plays well with lyrics found later in Midnights in her song “Karma” when she sings: “Karma takes all my friends to the summit.” Here, we’re shown that even in dire emotional straits, there’s always hope for a better future with time. Maybe it’s best not to jump, after all?

Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die
I don't belong, and my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I'm setting off, but not without my muse
No, not without you

Swift describes the peaks of Windermere as the perfect place to cry, reminding us of the true power of the lakes and nature. Away from the expectations of others, from our obligations to ourselves and the people we’re responsible for, hidden away from the heartbreaks and letdowns of our past, we can reflect and embrace vulnerability.

In the final lines, Swift reminds us that she can’t leave for the lakes without her muse. Whether that’s referencing her stolen life’s work, a lost romantic love, both, or neither, the message is the same. Sometimes, you can’t escape even if you feel like there’s nothing left for you where you are. Often, life forces us to wait and delay our escape plan. And until you can whisk yourself away to that remote cottage in the woods, you can create an escape in your mind to help get through uncertain times.

Themes in “the lakes” by Taylor Swift:

• Escapism, isolation, and how nature can help us return to ourselves and heal

• Death as a symbol of the ending and beginning of things as it relates to love

• Unrequited love and the tragedy of one-sided romantic relationships

• The loss of time and the past, wishing we could return to what once was

Additional Reading:

• Poem: “Elegiac Stanzas Suggested by a Picture of Peele Castle in a Storm, Painted by Sir George Beaumont” by William Wordsworth

• William Wordsworth – “Elegiac Stanzas” from Reading the Norton

• Bushra, Fabliha. (2023). Deciphering Taylor Swift's Sentiments- Analyzing The Lakes and This is Me Trying through Discourse Analysis.