Taylor Swift’s Floral Metaphors

Taylor Swift’s Floral Metaphors are a powerful tool in her songwriting. She is known for her poetic and personal lyrics that often reflect her emotions and experiences. One of the motifs that she frequently uses in her songs is flowers, which symbolize different aspects of her feelings, such as love, growth, beauty, and pain. In this blog post, we will explore how Taylor Swift uses flowers to explain her feelings in some of her songs.

Flowers

Call It What You Want It

Call it what you want is a song from Reputation, and it is about Taylor’s relationship with her partner who accepts her for who she is and supports her through the hardships she faced during the era.

She sings “All my flowers grew back as thorns“, implying that she has become stronger and more defensive after being hurt by the media and her enemies. She also sings “He built a fire just to keep me warm”, suggesting that her lover has helped her heal and feel safe. 

Rose

Blank Space

One of the most iconic examples of Taylor Swift’s use of flowers is in her song “Blank Space”, where she sings: “Rose garden filled with thorns / Keep you second guessing like / ‘Oh my God, who is she?’ / I get drunk on jealousy”. Here, she compares her relationship with a new lover to a rose garden that looks beautiful but hides danger. She portrays herself as a manipulative and jealous lover who enjoys playing games and making him doubt her. The roses represent the passion and attraction that they share, but also the pain and betrayal that they inflict on each other.

Back to December

Another example of Swift using flowers to express her heartbreak is in the song “Back To December”, where she sings: “You gave me roses and I left them there to die / So this is me swallowing my pride / Standing in front of you saying I’m sorry for that night / And I go back to December all the time”. Here, Swift regrets breaking up with her ex-boyfriend, who gave her roses as a gesture of his affection. She admits that she did not appreciate his gift and left them to die, which implies that she also neglected their relationship and let it fade away. She also apologizes for hurting him and wishes she could go back to December, which is presumably when they broke up. The roses are a symbol of their love and romance, and their death represents the end of their relationship.

Wisteria

The Lakes

In her song “the lakes”, Taylor Swift uses flowers as metaphors to express her feelings of longing, isolation, and creativity. She sings about wanting to escape from the pressures and criticisms of fame and find a place where she can be herself with her lover. She references the Lake District in England, where many Romantic poets lived and wrote in the 19th century. She compares herself to them and their artistic struggles.

Some of the floral imagery she uses are:

• “I want auroras and sad prose / I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet” – She desires a natural and poetic beauty that contrasts with the artificial and harsh world she lives in.
• “A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground / With no one around to tweet it” – She feels like a rare and fragile flower that survives in a cold and hostile environment, without anyone to appreciate or understand her.

Daisy

Don’t Blame Me

Don’t blame me is a song from Taylor’s sixth studio album reputation, released in November 2017. The song is about Taylor’s intense and addictive love for her partner, who makes her feel high and euphoric. She compares herself to a daisy, which is a flower that symbolizes innocence, purity, and hope. She contrasts this with poison ivy, which is a plant that causes itching and irritation when touched. She sings: “I once was poison ivy, but now I’m your daisy“. This implies that she was once toxic and harmful, but now she is sweet and innocent. 

As we can see,  Taylor Swift’s Floral Metaphors are used as a creative way to convey her feelings and emotions in her songs. She chooses different types of flowers that have different meanings and associations to match the mood and tone of each song. She also uses colors and contrasts to create vivid imagery and metaphors that resonate with her listeners. She has a knack for creating vivid and emotional imagery with her words, which makes her songs relatable and captivating. Flowers are a powerful metaphor for her feelings, as they can capture both the beauty and the pain of love and life.