“Tell Me What Are My Wordsworth” : Taylor Swift as a modern Romantic poet

Sammanfattning

This study examines how lyric meaning is constructed in selected works by William Wordsworth and Taylor Swift, focusing on how Romantic lyric techniques continue and transform within contemporary songwriting. While previous scholarships have frequently emphasized thematic similarities between Swift’s work and Romanticism, this study instead investigates lyrical techniques. Using close reading informed by theories of lyric and embodied poetic language, particularly those of Jonathan Culler and Megan Quinn, the analysis compares Wordsworth’s “The Solitary Reaper” with Swift’s songs “The Albatross”, “The Prophecy”, and “Robin” from The Tortured Poets Department (2024). The findings demonstrate that both authors employ lyric techniques such as repetition, rhythm, address, immediacy, and emotional intensity to immerse readers or listeners in emotional experience. However, the analysis reveals a significant difference in the use of imagery. In Wordsworth’s poetry, emotional meaning emerges through sustained engagement with a concrete and perceptually grounded external world. By contrast, Swift’s lyrics frequently construct symbolic and emotionally charged imagery organized around preexisting psychological states rather than coherent physical environments. Swift, as in “Robin” complicates this distinction by combining observation with symbolic projection; her broader lyric practice reflects a contemporary adaptation of Romantic techniques. Ultimately, the study argues that Swift does not merely reproduce Romantic themes but reworks Romantic lyric expression into a modern lyrical form shaped by contemporary emotional and cultural conditions.