Like A Sad Movie? Complete “Breathe” Song Analysis
Breathe, track 7 on Taylor Swift’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version), isn’t one of the more acclaimed songs on the album. But this is a totally underrated track on the record.
Both the original and the re-record feature the sweet voice – and songwriting – of Colbie Caillat (of the hit 2007 song “Bubbly”).
Taylor’s song writing isn’t quite as powerful at this point in her career as it will be later on, but this song still showcases some incredible use of metaphor, imagery and tone.
Here’s my complete English teacher analysis of Taylor’s Breathe song meaning, line by line and heartbreak by heartbreak. Let’s see what we can learn about Taylor’s state of mind and songwriting during this period of her life.

Breathe (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift
- Title: Breathe (Taylor’s Version) (Featuring Colbie Caillat)
- Track: 7, Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
- Written By: Taylor Swift, Colbie Caillat
- Pen: Fountain
- Secret Message: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.”
- Lyrics via Genius
Breathe Narrative Summary
- Setting: Heartbreak land at 2am.
- Characters: Narrator (Taylor and/or Colbie), Subject (“you”, ex-partner or friend).
- Mood: Sad, reflective, apologetic.
- Conflict: It didn’t work out and they have to move on, but it hurts.
- Inciting Incident: Some kind of break up; either a friendship or a relationship.
- Quest: Let this person know that it’s not easy for her, either, and that she didn’t mean for any of it to happen.
- Symbols & Metaphors: Breathing, driving away, films and film scores, “know like back of my hand”, “bump in the road,” “swerve”.
- Theme: Heartbreak.
What was the Secret Message on Breathe?
The secret message in the original Fearless liner notes for Breathe was: “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I’m sorry.” This is the same as the final lines of the song.
Who is Taylor (and/or Colbie) apologizing to? We may never know. But it’s a haunting message.
Who is Breathe About?
Taylor has never revealed who Breathe is about. Since it was co-written with Colbie Caillat, it could be about a real person in either of their lives, or just about heartbreak in general.
Taylor said (at the time of the original release): “It’s a song about having to say goodbye to somebody, but it never blames anybody. Sometimes that’s the most difficult part. When it’s nobody’s fault.”
Fans theorize that it’s about her former fiddle player Emily Poe, who was both on Taylor’s team and her best friend in her early days. Poe left the team (either willingly or not), and Taylor could have written the song about her departure.
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Breathe Song Meaning: Line by Line

“I see your face in my mind as I drive away,” she says, looking back with sad remembrance and reflection.
Taylor immediately pulls us into the setting: driving away (either physically, or metaphorically) with a face popping up in her head. This isn’t the rearview mirror of White Horse – this is different.
“’Cause none of us thought it was gonna end that way,” she says, explaining that no one saw this coming. It wasn’t premeditated, and everyone involved wanted it to work out better than it has.
Contrasted with White Horse’s feeling of self-blame and anger, this is more of a surrender that sometimes things don’t work out. “People are people and sometimes we change our minds,” she says, using the common proverb that means “shit happens.”
“But it’s killin’ me to see you go after all this time,” she says, grieving over all the time they spent together in happier moments. In those better days, it felt like it would last forever.
Verse 2: “Like the End of a Sad Movie”

“The music starts playin’ like the end of a sad movie,” she says, evoking a cinematic closing scene to this relationship. The metaphoric credits roll on their time together, using a similar metaphor as in her future songs exile, the 1, and this is me trying.
“It’s the kind of endin’ you don’t really wanna see,” she says of the metaphorical film of their time together, “’Cause it’s tragedy and it’ll only bring you down.”
The “film” hasn’t been a comedy – it’s been a “tragedy,” so the theater goer is leaving with a deep sadness. It’s a great metaphor for the ending of a relationship where nothing drastic happened, it just came to its natural end.
“Now I don’t know what to be without you around,” she says, grieving not only the loss of this person, but of a loss deep inside. She doesn’t know who she is without this person in her life.
Pre-Chorus & Chorus: “I Can’t Breathe Without You”

“And we know it’s never simple, never easy,” she says of goodbyes in the pre-chorus, “Never a clean break, no one here to save me.”
“Clean break” conjures up images of splintered wood or broken bones – there are shards poking out that can be really painful. When the break happens, no matter the cause, your world shatters. There’s no way for this break to happen without someone getting hurt.
There’s also “no one here to save” Taylor; there are no white knights coming to swoop in. She can only save herself.
“You’re the only thing I know like the back of my hand,” she says, telling us that she knows this person better than she knows herself. It makes it hurt all the more, because they were so close, and now they have to say goodbye.
The most potent metaphor of the song is breathing. “I can’t breathe without you,” she says in the chorus, “but I have to.” This makes this person feel like an internal organ; an innate part of her. When this person is gone, she can’t survive.
But the chorus can be read in two ways: “I can’t breathe without you, but I have to,” or “I have to breathe without you.” The first means that it’s hard to survive without this person, and the second means she is almost hyperventilating with the pain of this loss.
Both are equally devastating.
Verse 3: “I Tried to Swerve”

“Never wanted this, never wanna see you hurt,” she says in the third verse. She tried to prevent the “crash”, and she describes this with a driving metaphor.
She’s in the driver’s seat, meaning she’s been in control, and with “every little bump in the road, I tried to swerve.” She tried to avoid the common pitfalls of relationships, and avert disaster. It didn’t work.
“But people are people and sometimes it doesn’t work out,” she says, not blaming one particular reason for the break. Sometimes, there are many reasons, and many ways something can go wrong.
“And nothin’ we say is gonna save us from the fallout,” she says, closing the third verse. There’s nothing she can say now that will make it any less painful.
Breakups always break, and breakups always hurt.
Bridge: “It’s 2 AM, Feelin’ Like I Just Lost a Friend”

“It’s 2 AM, feelin’ like I just lost a friend,” she sings in the bridge. The middle of the night has always been a time of deep reflection and rumination for Taylor, as she’s used in countless songs.
Here, she’s awake with the pain of grief: “Hope you know it’s not easy, easy for me,” she says to her lost partner or friend. This wasn’t a decision she took lightly; it was incredibly difficult.
She’s the one who did the hurting, or contributed to the hurting. But she’s hurt, too.
“I’m sorry,” she repeats seven times in the outro. She can’t say “sorry” enough, because as she told us before, “nothing we say is gonna save us from the fallout.”
The fallout is here, and everything about this situation feels terrible. Now that it’s unraveled, she knows it had to happen, but that doesn’t make it easy.
She didn’t mean for it to happen, but she takes responsibility, and tries her best to move on, and “breathe” through the pain.
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Breathe Song Analysis: Final Thoughts
Even though this wasn’t a very popular song on Fearless (TV or original), it’s still a hauntingly beautiful goodbye. This is one of the few songs in Taylor’s catalogue that describes growing apart naturally, with no one to blame.
This song sets the stage and the tone for Back to December, which will also see Taylor apologizing for a breakup. In that song from Speak Now, she takes full responsibility.
But in Breathe, it’s more about growing apart and growing up than breaking up. This is a beautiful song about endings and goodbyes. No matter what happens, when things fall apart, it always hurts.
More Songs from Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
- Fearless & Fearless TV Prologues
- Fearless
- Fifteen
- Love Story
- Hey Stephen
- White Horse
- You Belong With Me
- Breathe
- Tell Me Why
- You’re Not Sorry
- The Way I Loved You
- Forever & Always
- The Best Day
- Change
- Jump Then Fall
- Untouchable
- Come in With the Rain
- Superstar
- The Other Side of the Door
- Today Was a Fairytale
- You All Over Me [From the Vault]
- Mr Perfectly Fine [From the Vault]
- We Were Happy [From the Vault]
- That’s When (ft. Keith Urban) [From the Vault]
- Don’t You [From the Vault]
- Bye Bye Baby [From the Vault]