Taylor Swift is notorious for her lyrical masterpiece albums and her genius storytelling. As a former AP Literature student and a loyal swiftie, I often find myself dissecting the meaning behind her metaphoric lyrics, especially in her album folklore. There are three songs on this album in which Swift has written a fictional love triangle between three teenagers, Betty, James, and Augustine.
The 14th track of folklore, betty, is in the perspective of James. James is a high school student who is in a relationship with Betty. In this song James is describing his guilt and regret he feels after cheating on her with an unnamed girl, but swifties have named her Augustine. James states, “The worst thing that I ever did was what I did to you.” This was before he blatantly states that he cheated, but during the bridge of the song he states, “She said ‘James get in, let’s drive,’ those days turned into nights slept next to her, but I dreamt of you all summer long.” Throughout the songs, James repeatedly states, “I’m only 17, I don’t know anything, but I know I miss you.” This shows James’ naivety and misunderstanding of these young girl’s feelings.
In the 8th track of folklore, august, Swift writes in the perspective of Augustine, the girl James cheats on Betty with that summer. Augustine opens the chorus stating “I can see us lost in the memory, August slipped away into a moment of time.” Augustine and James’ time together had them both immersed into the moment; they weren’t aware of the time. In the bridge of the song, Swift’s voice embodies the hurt and disappointment Augustine is feeling. She says “so much for summer love and saying us ‘cause you weren’t mine to lose.” This shows the sadness that Augustine feels when her and James’ relationship comes to an end. She didn’t want to just be a summer fling to James; she is a real person and has real feelings for James.
The 2nd track of folklore, cardigan, is in the perspective of Betty, James’ original girlfriend. This song describes Betty’s feelings and anger of being cheated on that summer. A lyric that really stands out is when Swift wrote, “a friend to all is a friend to none, chase two girls lose the one, when you are young they assume you know nothing.” By chasing both Betty and Augustine, James lost his first true love. This also ties back to James’ lyric in betty when he states that he’s only 17. Finally, Betty states that James “drew stars around [her] scars, but now [she’s] bleeding.” The care and comfort that James once provided has now been wiped away due to his disloyalty.
Taylor Swift’s use of metaphors and unique characterizations in these three songs has allowed me to truly love and understand these songs. It shows the unfortunate reality of teenage relationships which speaks to many of Swift’s young listeners.
