Who Are Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ Songs About? Joe Alwyn, Matty Healy and More

‘Fortnight’

The album’s first track seems to reference Taylor’s short-lived relationship with Matty, which began just weeks after news broke that she and Joe had split in April 2023.

“I touch you, only for a fortnight,” she sings in the chorus, referencing a two-week period that lines up with the short length of her fling with The 1975 singer.

While the song features some non-autobiographical lyrics like, “Your wife waters flowers, I want to kill her,” and, “My husband is cheating, I want to kill him,” the overall theme is about a brief romance that really hit Taylor hard. “I love you, it’s ruining my life,” she also sings.

‘The Tortured Poets Department’

Matty is also speculated to be the subject of track No. 2. Taylor references a subject who “smoked then ate seven bars of chocolate,” and Matty has been open about marijuana use. She also refers to the song’s inspiration as a “tattooed golden retriever,” and Matty has plenty of ink on his body.

One of the most telling lines is, “You told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave,” which appears to be a reference to Boygenius’ Lucy Dacus. Matt was friends with the band before making a controversial comment on social media and getting called out by Lucy in September 2023.

Taylor references just how strongly she felt about Matty at the end of the song, adding, “At dinner, you take my ring off my middle finger and put it on the one people put wedding rings on and that’s the closest I’ve come to my heart exploding.”

‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys’

Joe seems to be the inspiration for track 3, with Taylor using metaphors to call out someone for not putting her on the same pedestal as he did when they first got together.

“You should’ve seen him when he first got me,” she sings in the chorus. “My boy only breaks his favorite toys.” She previously hinted that Joe grew tired of her on 2023’s “You’re Losing Me” when she sang, “Don’t you ignore me, I’m the best thing at this party.”

‘Down Bad’

Taylor was most definitely down bad for Matty and this song is more proof. She once again references the short length of their fling, singing, “For a moment I knew cosmic love,” on track 4.

Later, she adds, “How dare you think it’s romantic leaving me safe and stranded?” A blind item posted by DeuxMoi previously hinted that Matty was the one to dip out on this relationship, leaving Taylor completely blindsided, and this lyric tracks with that report.

‘So Long, London’

The always-anticipated track 5 did not disappoint, with Taylor saying goodbye to her life across the pond with Joe. The two were together for more than six years and spent most of their time in his native London.

“I kept calm and carried the weight of the rift, pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away,” she sings in the first verse, once again referencing Joe pulling away from her.

In the second verse, she says, “I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth,” hinting at the years in her 20s that she was dating Joe without him ever taking the next step. She also seemingly revealed that she wanted marriage with her ex later in the song, singing, “You swore that you loved me but where were the clues? I died on the altar waiting for the proof.”

‘But Daddy I Love Him’

This one seems to be Taylor calling out people who criticized her for dating Matty. “They slammed the door on my whole world, the one thing I wanted,” she reveals.

She also defends wanting to be with the controversial singer, adding, “I know he’s crazy but he’s the one I want.” Taylor even seemingly talks directly to the fans who had something to say about the relationship when she sings, “I’ll tell you something right now, I’d rather burn my whole life down than listen to one more second of all this bitching and moaning. I’ll tell you something about my good name, it’s mine alone to disgrace. I don’t cater to all these vipers dressed in empath’s clothing.”

‘Fresh Out the Slammer’

Here, Taylor seemingly sings about wanting to start a relationship with Matty after her breakup from Joe. She and Matty were previously rumored to be dating in 2014 and she makes references to rekindling a past relationship on “Fresh Out the Slammer.”

“It’s gonna be alright, I did my time, now pretty baby I’m running back home to you,” she sings. “Fresh out the slammer, I know who my first call will be to.”

Toward the end of the song, she makes another reference to a romance from the past. “Ain’t no way I’m gonna screw up now that I know what’s at stake,” the pop star croons. “Here at the park, where we used to sit on children’s swings wearing imaginary rings.”

‘Florida!!!’ (ft. Florence and the Machine)

This collab appears to take a page out of Taylor’s Folkore and Evermore era, as she seems to tell a fictional tale of using Florida as a place to escape to and bury one’s regrets. 

‘Guilty as Sin?’

Fans speculate that “Guilty as Sin” is Taylor’s confession that she was starting to fall for Matty while still in a relationship with Joe. In January 2023, she performed with The 1975 in concert, so Matty was already back in her orbit months before the April 2023 breakup news came out.

“How I long for our tryst,” she sings, daydreaming of a romance with someone else. “Without ever touching his skin, how can I be guilty as sin?”

She also seemingly hints that she previously wrote songs about Matty the first time they dated. “I keep these longings locked in lowercase inside a vault,” she says. Taylor has released several old songs “from the vault” while rerecording her first six albums and appears to have some tracks about Matty locked away in there too.

The lyrics to “Guilty as Sin” have Taylor making it clear that she was never unfaithful to Joe, though, as she says, “Someone told me there’s no such thing as bad thoughts, only your actions talk.”

‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’

This track seems to be Taylor’s message to those who have spewed hate her way, as she sings, “I was tame, I was gentle ‘til the circus life made me mean, don’t you work, folks, we took out all her teeth, who’s afraid of little old me?”

‘I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)’

Matty gets another apparent song about him in “I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can),” as Taylor sings about hoping she can make her partner become someone who the public approves of. The message is similar to what she previously sang about on “But Daddy I Love Him.”

The chorus goes, “Trust me, I can handle a dangerous man, no really I can. They shook their heads saying, ‘God help her,’ when I told ‘em he’s my man, but your good lord didn’t need to lift a finger. I can fix him, no really, I can.”

However, at the end, she realizes that “maybe [she] can’t” fix him.

‘loml’

On first listen, this heartbreaking song seemed to be about Taylor and Joe’s breakup, but references to “rekindling” a past romance have signs pointing toward the track possibly being about Matty.

“We embroidered the memories of a time I was away, stitching, we were just kids, babe,” the Grammy winner says in the first verse, seemingly referencing when she and Matty dated in 2014. There’s also another reference to the short length of the pair’s relationship, as Taylor sings, “What we thought was for all-time was momentary.”

However, a mention of marriage and babies has fans also naming Joe as the subject. “You said I’m the love of your life, you s–t talked me under a table, talking rings and talking cradles, I wish I could un-recall how we almost had it all,” Taylor sings later in the song.

‘I Can Do It With a Broken Heart’

This song is what fans expected based on the title, referencing how Taylor was able to put on her Eras tour while going through a devastating breakup in the spring of 2023. However, it may not have just been the Joe breakup that she was brokenhearted about, as Matty also appears to have taken a toll on her.

“I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” features lyrics like, “Cause I’m a real tough kid, I can handle my s–t, they said, ‘Babe you gotta fake it ‘til you make it,’ and I did,’” and “I was grinning like I’m winning, I was hitting my marks, ‘cause I can do it with a broken heart.”

‘The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived’

This is the first time Taylor seems very angry with Matty for how things went down, as she calls him out for “ghosting” her.

“You tried to buy some pills from a friend of friends of mine, they just ghosted you, now you know what it feels like,” she snarls. The timeline also matches up with Taylor and Matty dating in May 2023, as she sings, “I just want to know if rusting my sparkling summer was the goal?”

‘The Alchemy’

While fans speculated that TTPD was written before Travis Kelce came into Taylor’s life, the multiple references to football on this song has some wondering if the NFL star may have inspired the track.

“So when I touch down, call the amateurs,” she sings, using a play on the word touchdown. Other sports references include, “On the benches, we’ve been on a winning streak,” and, “Shirt’s off and your friends lift you up over their heads, beer sticking to the floor, cheers chanting ‘cause they said there was no chance. Trying to be the greatest in the league, where’s the trophy?”

‘Clara Bow’

Taylor often includes at least one song on her albums about how she feels about life in the spotlight and the closing track on TTPD fits the bill. She sings about being compared to stars like Clara Bow and before eventually turning the song to the next generation of those who will come after her.

In one of her most jaw-dropping lyrics of all-time, she references her own name on the track, singing, “You look like Taylor Swift in this light, we’re loving it. You’ve got edge, she never did. The future’s bright, dazzling.”

‘The Black Dog’

“The Black Dog” is likely about Joe, as the lyrics seem to reference a long-term relationship that had ended. “I am someone who until recent events you shared your secrets with and your location, you forgot to turn it off,” Taylor sings. It would make sense that she and Joe had shared their locations with each other after being together for so many years.

The song features Taylor seeing her former lover’s location as he walks into a bar called The Black Dog. She wonders how he’s able to live his life without thinking of her.

‘imgonnagetyouback’

Matty seemingly pops up again on this track, as Taylor sings about wanting to get someone back romantically, while also hoping to get revenge on them. The lyrics allude to Taylor and Matty’s past romance and her wanting to start things up again after ending her relationship with Joe.

“Push the reset button, we’re becoming something new, say you got someone else, say, ‘I got someone too,’” she sings. This particular lyric seems to call back to “Guilty as Sin?” when Taylor admitted that she was pining for someone (speculated to be Matty) while dating somebody else (Joe).

‘The Albatross’

This one seems to be a self-reflective song for Taylor. As a metaphor, an albatross is said to be a “psychological burden that feels like a curse.” On the song, Taylor seems to warn a partner that they’re in “danger” if they want to be with her. 

“She’s the albatross, she is here to destroy you,” she sings. “Devils that you know raise worse hell than a stranger, she’s the death you chose.”

‘Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus’

This one is a doozy and appears to be Taylor looking back on a past relationship that didn’t work out. The names in the title are mentioned quickly in the song, with Taylor singing, “Your hologram stumbled into my apartment, hands in the hair of somebody in darkness named Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus.”

These names seem to be arbitrary and referring to new lovers of someone who Taylor dated in the past. Matty is speculated to be the main subject of this song, though. Taylor seemingly references dating Travis after their breakup, singing, “You saw my bones out with somebody new who seemed like he would’ve bullied you in school.”

She also gives a nod to the time between their relationship in 2014 and rekindling in 2023, singing, “As the decade would play us for fools.”

‘How Did It End?’

Taylor is seemingly singing about all the chatter that surrounded the end of her relationship with Joe. The “how did it end?” lyric appears to refer to the number one question people had after the pair’s six-year romance imploded.

“We’ll tell no one, ‘cept all our friends, we must know, how did it end?” she sings, in the voice of the gossipers.

‘So High School’

Travis Kelce seems to have another moment on this one, as Taylor sings about feeling giddy in the early stages of a relationship. She makes several specific references to the NFL star, including how he “[got her] car door” for her and how he “know[s] how to ball.”

She also mentions the game “Kiss, Marry, Kill,” which Travis played in a viral 2016 video with Taylor as one of his options. “Are you gonna marry, kiss or kill me?” she sings. “It’s just a game but really I’m bettin’ on all three for us two.”

‘I Hate It Here’

This one is a peek inside Taylor’s innermost anxious thoughts as she longs to escape reality and go to “secret gardens in [her] mind” when things get tough. With so much going on in her real life, she’s sometimes in need of a distraction.

‘thanK you aIMee’

The KIM being capitalized in the title is not random, as all signs point to this song being about Kim Kardashian. There’s a lot to break down about this song, so we spelled it all out here.

A summary? Taylor is still pissed at Kim for editing her phone call with Kanye West and branding her a liar while releasing the manipulated version to the public in 2016.

‘I Look in People’s Windows’

This song features Taylor singing about a former connection who she lost touch with and continues searching for in the years that follow. It’s hard to pinpoint an exact subject or know if the story is even autobiographical, but there is a case for it being about her hoping to reconnect with Matty after their 2014 breakup.

“I look in people’s windows in case you’re at their table, what if your eyes looked up and met mine one more time?” she sings.

‘The Prophecy’

This one seems to have several references to the Joe relationship, including another apparent  nod to her waiting around for him to propose. “Even statues crumble if they’re made to wait,” Taylor sings.

She also says, “Don’t want money, just someone who wants my company,” which is an apparent callback to a lyric from “You’re Losing Me” about Joe “ignoring her.”

‘Cassandra’

“Cassandra” seems to refer to Cassandra from Greek mythology, a prophet who is cursed so nobody believes her. Fans have related this to some of Taylor’s public feuds and dramas over the years, speculating that the song could be about Kanye West, Kim Kardashian or Scooter Braun.

‘Peter’

“Peter” in the song title is referring to Peter Pan, the boy who never grew up. However, Taylor seems to use the character to describe Matty, as she sings about a lover who promised he’d “grow up” and “come find [her],” only for her to find that nothing had changed when they met later in life.

“You said you’d come and get me, but you were 25 and the shelf life of those fantasies has expired,” she sings. Matty was 25 when he and Taylor first dated.

‘The Bolter’

Taylor refers to herself as “the bolter” on this track, seemingly looking back on past relationships that she left, even when they seemed to be going well at first. 

‘Robin’

Taylor often touches on themes of childhood and youth in her songs and this is another example of that. The whimsical track features her advising young people to embrace mystical thoughts and remain carefree.

‘The Manuscript’

This song appears to be about one of Taylor’s past relationships with an older man that she had already healed from, as she sings, “The professor said to write what you know, lookin’ backwards might be the only way forward.” The age difference comes up when she says, “She thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years everything had been above board,” and, “In the age of him, she wished she was thirty.” 

She also sings, “Then she dated boys who were her own age,” referring to more recent relationships, as opposed to some of her trysts with older men like John Mayer, Jake Gyllenhaal, Calvin Harris and Tom Hiddleston.