Maybe you ran with the wolves
New episode "Animal Studies" out now!
What do white horses, foxes, vultures, and wolves all have in common? They all show up in our favorite Taylor Swift songs! This week, we’re looking to understand how Taylor Swift uses animals in her lyrics, through the lens of animal studies! Jenn takes us back to medieval times to help us understand the origins of the white horse and what that means for “White Horse” (Fearless 2008). Then Jodi talks to us about the many connotations associated with foxes and vultures, referenced in “I Know Places,” (1989 2014). And finally, Maansi talks us through the song “Daylight” (Lover 2014) where there are implications of the animalistic concept of hibernation, and also references to wolves.
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🎒This Week’s Extra Credit - Brought to You by Maansi
You may recall that I am currently a master’s student pursuing the study of liberal arts. A few years ago, as a part of this program, I had the opportunity to take a class on Poetry of Animality. Seeing as this week’s topic was on Animal Studies, I thought it may be a great opportunity to share a bit of what I learned and apply it to The Tortured Poets Department, which was released after were recorded this episode.
Animal studies are interesting because animals have always fascinated humans — they’re our companions in nature. And though animals definitely also have allegorical characteristics (which we discuss a bit in this episode), such as the fox being cunning or the snake being evil, in poetry, poets actually can leverage the animal’s very animality to convey meaning. For example, we may empathize with and find camaraderie with the few animals we spend ample time with, such as dogs, horses, and perhaps farm animals. For other animals that we are less familiar with, we may assign characteristics based on their appearances.
Poets may leverage animals that humans have relationships with as autobiographical animals as an opportunity for self-reflection. Or perhaps they utilize a “nonhuman” animal to communicate a sense of “other,” and in doing so play with pathos and sympathy in their poetry. Poets may also play with the ethics of animality (ex. animal rights) to communicate or appeal to humanity. Understanding animality from an ethical, aesthetic, and philosophical perspective allows us to understand all the different ways in which poets can leverage animals in their work.
Taylor Swift, perhaps the most famous poet of our time, doesn’t use animals frequently, but when she does, they certainly almost always do mean something. Fortunately, we have more animal references to play with in The Tortured Poets Department — let’s examine them through the lens of animality.
Wolves
Wolves seem to be one of Taylor’s favorite animals to reference. We discuss wolves in this week’s episode while discussing “Daylight” (Lover 2019), they appeared in the “Out of the Woods” (1989, 2014) music video, but also wolves appear again in The Tortured Poets Department in “Guilty as Sin” and in “Prophecy.” In this week’s episode, we talk about wolves allegorically, through their roles in children’s fables and lore, and briefly start to talk about their animality (how they travel in packs).
Her reference to wolves in “Guilty as Sin” can be explored through a more philosophical lens:
"I dream of cracking locks Throwing my life to the wolves Or the ocean rocks Crashing into him tonight"
This use of wolves references the human relationship with wolves. The phrase “throwing my life to the wolves” specifically recognizes wolves as predators that can be a threat to human life. They’re not friendly creatures, they are dangerous. Multiple wolves also conjure the image of a whole pack, perhaps waiting hungrily. When wolves devour their prey, they can be vicious, tossing around scraps for the entire pack. It’s a very violent and wild image. Throwing one’s life at wolves is equivalent to throwing one’s life into danger, throwing caution to the wind — being reckless. She compares throwing herself to this other person to be just as reckless as throwing one’s life to the wolves.
This reference is quite different from how Taylor uses wolves in “The Prophecy,” for example, where her use of these creatures is more aesthetic and allegorical.
"A greater woman stays cool But I howl like a wolf at the moon"
Humans have been fascinated with the sight of wolves howling at the moon for centuries — it’s an aesthetic that has often been associated with eerie dark nights since full moons are often associated with witchcraft or pagan cultures. Wolves howling at the moon also has made its way into lore, with the idea of humans who transform into werewolves during full moon (against their will, giving into the insanity that overcomes them), giving some allegorical context to this reference as well. Focusing on a different part of the wolf’s animality completely changes its meaning in the poem. In this case, the speaker is being compared to a wolf, but the wolf is not predatory or vicious like in the previous song — the wolf represents insanity, wildness. Same creature, different meaning.
Snakes
Taylor has quite the history with snakes, dating back to her Reputation era. What started as a way of owning an insult people were throwing at her on the internet turned into her whole personality, appearing in her music videos and playing a significant role in her Reputation tour. Her single “Me” (Lover, 2019) even opened with a snake bursting into butterflies.
Snakes are often regarded as “lesser” creatures, largely due to their aesthetic, but are also very much allegorical. They appear to be slimy and slithery, not to mention their hisses are creepy. Philosophically, Their reptilian nature differentiates them from humans— they can’t regulate their temperature, they lay eggs, they have weird eyes and eyelids, they shed and have I mentioned they slither?! In nature, snakes live in cool, dark, moist places, which does not help their reputation (pun intended). As a result, in religious lore snakes are often up to no good. In Judaism and Christianity, the snake was responsible for deceiving Eve and triggering the fall. In Hinduism, there are tales of Krishna defeating a tyrannical sea serpent king. All of these different aspects lend themselves to the animality of the snake and can be used in different ways in poetry.
In Taylor’s Reputation era, Taylor leverages the fact that the snake philosophically represents “the other” and owns it. She also owns the aesthetic.
Taylor references snakes twice in The Tortured Poets Department— in “But Daddy I Love Him” and “Cassandra.”
In “But Daddy I love him,” the line is:
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
The use of vipers is very specific and references the very nature of this animal. Vipers are venomous and have distinctive fangs. They attack by striking suddenly. Vipers “dressed in empath’s clothing” is also interesting because, of course, snakes shed their skin and therefore can be considered to be wearing different layers. This context helps us understand that vipers are a metaphor for dangerous people, and are likely to strike unexpectedly and spread their venom (gossip, perhaps).
This reference is quite different from the reference in Cassandra, which is more allegorical in nature:
So, they killed Cassandra first 'cause she feared the worst And tried to tell the town So they filled my cell with snakes, I regret to say Do you believe me now?
This entire song is referencing Cassandra, a character in Greek mythology. In one version of Cassandra’s story, she goes to Apollo’s temple, where the snakes are responsible for whispering the future to her. In this song, the speaker compares herself to Cassandra, someone who consistently tried to tell the truth, but was ignored. An allegorical interpretation of snakes could suggest the speaker got the future from the snakes, but like Cassandra, wasn’t believed. But here we can also take on a more philosophical interpretation of snakes, where the snakes represent danger and are put into the cell to kill her because she is like Cassandra.
Once again here, you’ve got the same animals, but different interpretations based on different aspects of their animality.
I could go on and on, but to wrap things up, I took a stab at identifying some other animal references in The Tortured Poets Department. I would love to hear your thoughts on whether you agree about the aspects of animality that Taylor is using for these:
“loml” - “The coward claimed he was a lion” — allegorical, references Wizard of Oz. Philosophically, lions are considered to be the top of the food chain, king of the jungle, and are associated with being brave (Richard the Lionheart, etc).
“The albatross” - “She’s the albatross | she’s here to destroy you” — allegorical
“The albatross” - “jackals raised their hackles” — aesthetic & philosophical
“The Tortured Poets Department” - “I scratch your head, you fall asleep | Like a tattooed golden retriever” — philosophical
“The Bolter” - “Taming a bear, making him care” — philosphical
“Robin” - “You’re an animal, you are bloodthirsty,” “Way to go tiger,” “Long may you roar at your dinosaurs,” “You got the dragonflies above your bed.” — philosophical