“A Perfectly Good Heart” Meaning: What’s Taylor Hiding?
Taylor Swift has written a lot of songs about heartbreak. This one – from her debut 2006 self-titled album – may be the simplest and most pure.
It’s about having her heart broken and the never-ending questioning we go through as teenagers when someone wrongs us: ‘Why? Why would you do this to me? ‘
Let’s look at A Perfectly Good Heart meaning and see what we can glean from this early breakup song.
A Perfectly Good Heart by Taylor Swift
- “A Perfectly Good Heart”
- Track 14: Taylor Swift, debut album Deluxe Edition Bonus Track (2006)
- Written By: Taylor Swift, Brett James, Troy Verges
- Pen: Fountain
- Lyrics From Genius
Is this Taylor’s first proper breakup song? Maybe, though we did already have “Should’ve Said No” on this album.
There are several common themes throughout this song: heartbreak, confusion, and the search for understanding in the aftermath of a failed relationship.
A Perfectly Good Heart Meaning: Narrative Analysis
- Setting: Heartbreak central (no physical locations mentioned).
- Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (heartbreaker).
- Mood: Baffled, questioning, flabbergasted.
- Conflict: He broke her heart.
- Quest: Tell him how much he hurt her; try to figure out his motive.
- Inciting Incident: Breakup or possibly infidelity.
- Symbols & Metaphors: Scars, “writing on the wall,” falling.
- Theme: Heartbreak.
- Lesson: Sometimes things don’t make sense; not everything happens for a reason.
Who is A Perfectly Good Heart About?
Taylor has never revealed who this song was inspired by, but it was likely her first high school heartbreak.
A Perfectly Good Heart Meaning: Line by Line
This song is interesting in that it starts with the chorus and ends with the chorus. It’s nicely book-ended that way, and it’s not something Taylor often does. Does that have more meaning? That the start and the end are the same? Maybe.
She often circles back around, but changes the lyrics slightly. Here they are identical.
She’s speaking directly to the subject throughout, as well as speaking to herself as she frantically asks, “Why would you want to break a perfectly good heart?”
“Why would you want to take our love and tear it all apart?” symbolizes their love as a book with torn out pages. Taylor will come back to this imagery and metaphor time and time again, as in Story of Us and Love Story.
“Why would you want to make the very first scar?” she asks him. This introduces another metaphor that will become prominent in the Taylorverse: scars as heartbreak.
But this is “the very first scar.” This clues us in that this is about Taylor’s first heartbreak, and she uses the scar metaphor for the pain and trauma of heartbreak throughout her discography.
Verse 1: “Should’ve Read the Writing on the Wall”
In the first verse, she switches from talking to her ex to talking to herself, and she’s just kicking herself that she ignored all the warning signs.
“I should’ve seen the signs” will remind eagle-eyed listeners of “Exile” (“I gave so many signs”). She’s wondering why she didn’t see the cues that this would happen; that he would hurt her. She ignored all the red flags.
“I should’ve read the writing on the wall,” she says. To read the writing on the wall means that something is plainly obvious – it’s been foreshadowed – but you’ve ignored it.
She should have interpreted “the distance in your eyes” as a harbinger of things to come. And what’s coming? “That I would be the one to fall.”
The use of “fall” could mean two things: she fell in love with him blindly, or she fell as in tripped and hurt herself.
2nd Pre-Chorus & Chorus: “It Don’t Make Sense to Me”
In the second pre-chorus and chorus, she’s ruminating.
She can’t believe that he “would walk away.” She doesn’t believe it – she can’t comprehend this reality that it’s over.
There is a deep sense of incomprehension and betrayal here. She’s really struggling to understand why he would want to end a seemingly happy and loving relationship.
He broke something that was perfectly useable and fit for purpose, which begs the question: “why me?” Why her heart? What was so wrong with her that he had to “make the very first scar?”
This is the core of Taylor’s self-reflection on this early album – ‘what’s wrong with me?’ ‘what’s so different about me?’ ‘why am I the one for this to happen to?’
Taylor is like a toy that he once enjoyed playing with, but smashed in a moment of boredom.
Bridge: “It’s Not Unbroken Anymore”
The bridge expresses a desperate search for answers and clarity: “how do I get it back the way it was before?”. She was pristine, and now she’s forever tarnished.
I think what this reflects is not only her heart being shattered, but her idea of love being shattered. Up until now, she’s had an idea of everlasting love that never grows old (think Mary’s Song).
Now that she knows what can really happen in the game of love and loss, she’s devastated. Nothing lasts. Nothing can last.
The narrative is bookended by the repetition of “why would you wanna break a perfectly good heart?” which also began the song.
It’s a rhetorical question she’ll never get answers to, and a question she’ll search her whole life – and who career – looking for answers to.
A Perfectly Good Heart Meaning: Final Thoughts
A Perfectly Good Heart lyrics speak to the universal experience of heartbreak, the vulnerability of love, and the difficulty in coming to terms with the end of a relationship.
For Taylor, unfortunately, this is the first of many breakup songs. But in it, we also see her strength, her quest for understanding, and her deep self-reflection.
Read More: Analyzing all the Songs on Taylor’s Debut Album
💚 How well do you know Taylor’s first album? Take the Debut Lyrics Quiz! 💚
