Abandoned Love: “coney island” Meaning, Explained
Taylor Swift’s first collaboration with The National is this heartbreaking track 9 from evermore: coney island. It’s a duet that narrates a slowly dying love, and the apathy of both lovers in letting go.
The central metaphor of Coney Island compares their slowly dying love to a run-down theme park: what was once exciting and bright has turned dull and depressing.
What do the lyrics mean, and what is Taylor really saying in this song? Who is she singing about?
Here’s my full English teacher analysis of Taylor’s coney island meaning, line by line.
coney island by Taylor Swift, ft. The National
- Title: coney island
- Written by: Joe Alwyn, Bryce Dessner, Aaron Dessner, Taylor Swift
- Track: 9, evermore
- Pen: Quill & Fountain
- Lyrics from Genius
coney island Lyrics Meaning: Narrative Summary
- Setting: Physically: Coney Island. Metaphorically: a run-down theme park, representing the love lost between them.
- Characters: Female Narrator (Taylor), Male Narrator (Matt Berninger)
- Mood: Forlorn, regretful, questioning.
- Conflict: They broke up after slowly breaking down.
- Inciting Incident: “Break my soul in two looking for you”
- Quest: Figure out what went wrong.
- Symbols & Metaphors: Coney Island, “Break my soul in two,” “relate” & “related to”, “long haul,” “delicate” & “shatter you”, “The fast times, the bright lights, the merry go,” “centerfold,” “colder,” “sun goes down,” “lifetime of achievement,” “pushed to the edge,” “the rogue,” “paradise,” “wise” & “old”, “the mall before the internet,” “gift-wrapped suburban dreams,” “arcade ring,” “tree line with the gold clock,” “happy birthday” and “big cake”, “blue skies” vs. “gray”, “podium,” “accident”, “flashed before me.”
- Lesson: Sometimes you can’t point to a reason why things end.
What is coney island About?
coney island is about a relationship that was once thrilling, but has lost its shine and luster. In the midst of this breakup, we get both the female and the male perspectives of what went wrong.
The setting of Coney Island becomes the overarching metaphor: it was wildly popular in decades past as an amusement park, but has suffered a long and desolate decline, just like their relationship.
Taylor said: “…I was trying to reflect on the Coney Island visual of a place where thrills were once sought. A place where, once it was all electricity and magic, and now the lights are out and you’re looking at it thinking, ‘What did I do?’”
Who is coney island About?
Taylor has never revealed if coney island was inspired by a real person in her life.
Several lyrics point to other songs in her catalog (as I’ll explore below) that reference specific romantic heartbreaks, so it could be about one of those, or the loss of love in a more general sense.
coney island Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line
The first verse begins with Taylor’s perspective of what went wrong between her and her now-ex.
“Break my soul in two looking for you,” she says, “But you’re right here.” She’s broken herself trying to make this work. This echoes a lyric from Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve: “God rest my soul…the wound won’t close.”
“If I can’t relate to you anymore,” she wonders, “Then who am I related to?” There’s a disconnect between them; one or both of them has changed, and their lives are no longer compatible.
“Who am I related to?” wonders where her “chosen family” has gone. It used to be this person, but now she doesn’t know where she stands.
“And if this is the long haul,” she asks, “How’d we get here so soon?” She thought they were in it forever; that this trip together would last a lifetime. But they’ve already come to the end of the road.
“Did I close my fist around something delicate?” she wonders. Was she holding onto him too tightly, and he wasn’t strong enough to take the pressure? “Did I shatter you?” she asks herself, echoing champagne problems: “your heart was glass, I dropped it.”
Chorus: “Where Did My Baby Go?”
“And I’m sitting on a bench in Coney Island” gives us her current setting (metaphorical and/or physical).
She’s sitting, waiting on a bench in a run-down theme park. This is the central metaphor: a place that was once exciting and sparkling, but is now desolate and depressing with its emptiness.
“Where did my baby go?” she wonders. He’s right in front of her, but she can’t reach him. Mentally, he’s gone far, far away.
“The fast times, the bright lights, the merry go” continue the theme park metaphor. Their love was once thrilling, illuminated, and moving forward.
“Merry go” cuts off without completing the phrase: “merry go round.” They are no longer going around – they stopped altogether.
“Sorry for not making you my centerfold” means that she didn’t make him a priority. A centerfold usually refers to the middle of a magazine: the main attraction of the publication. She didn’t center him in her life.
This also echoes a common Taylor metaphor of love as a book or a story, as in The Story of Us, Holy Ground, The Manuscript, and Death by a Thousand Cuts.
She didn’t prioritize them “over and over,” meaning she continually ignored his needs and desires. And now that he left, she’s “lost again with no surprises.” This is a relationship pattern: she’s been here before.
“Disappointments, close your eyes” means she’s along for the tragic ride like a roller coaster, where you might close your eyes getting to the top before the freefall. It’s like she’s not in control anymore; she disappoints everyone and doesn’t know why.
“And it gets colder and colder,” she says, “When the sun goes down.” Her heart or his heart gets “colder and colder” as the sun sets on their relationship. It’s now icy between them.
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Verse 2: “What’s a Lifetime of Achievement / If I Pushed You to the Edge”
The second verse is the male perspective of the downfall, sung by The National’s Matt Berninger.
“The question pounds my head,” he tells her, “What’s a lifetime of achievement / If I pushed you to the edge”? He was reaching for the peak of his life or career, but in the process, pushed his partner off the metaphoric ledge.
“But you were too polite to leave me” echoes a similar sentiment from Suburban Legends: “I broke my own heart ‘cause you were too polite to do it”. Even though his partner was silently suffering, she was too nice to break his heart.
Taylor enters with her perspective and they both sing to one another: “And do you miss the rogue / Who coaxed you into paradise and left you there?” They both “stole” each other’s hearts, ran off with the bounty, and then abandoned each other.
This echoes many of Taylor’s theft and criminal metaphors, such as in Blank Space (“Grab your passport and my hand / I can make the bad guys good for a weekend”), I Knew You Were Trouble (“‘Cause I knew you were trouble when you walked in / So shame on me now / Flew me to places I’d never been”), Ready for It? (“Knew I was a robber first time that he saw me / Stealing hearts and running off and never saying sorry / But if I’m a thief, then he can join the heist / And we’ll move to an island”.
In this case, they’re both the “rogues”, each taking advantage of the other for a quick thrill.
“Will you forgive my soul,” they ask one another, “When you’re too wise to trust me and too old to care?” Once they mature and see past the games and heart-stealing, will they forgive one another’s carelessness?
But the “soul” they need to forgive is “broken in two”. Will they ever look back on this breakup and be okay? Will time heal all wounds?
Chorus: “We Were Like the Mall Before the Internet”
Taylor begins the chorus with a throwback comparison: “’Cause we were like the mall before the internet.” They used to be the center of the world; “It was the one place to be.” But malls today are run-down, empty, or non-existent, much like Coney Island’s descent into oblivion.
Their past is nostalgic, like “the mischief, the gift-wrapped suburban dreams” that 90s teens found at the mall.
“Suburban dreams” echoes Taylor’s Suburban Legends: “We were born to be suburban legends / When you hold me, it holds me together / And you kiss me in a way that’s gonna screw me up forever.”
Both phrases allude to a hometown dream that never materializes.
Then then sing to each other: “Sorry for not winning you an arcade ring,” continuing the mall metaphor. The teenage “suburban dream” of your crush winning you an arcade ring at the mall was the brightest, most thrilling moment in a young romance.
But here, they haven’t won each other an “arcade ring,” and there are no wedding rings, or even Paper Rings. Their nostalgia – and hope of an everlasting romance – is gone.
They say “sorry” “over and over”. They’re “lost again with no surprises.” It gets “colder and colder” for both of them, as the sun slowly sets on their time – and all their past nostalgic moments – together.
Bridge: “Were You Waiting At Our Old Spot / In The Tree Line By The Gold Clock”
In the bridge, Taylor asks: “Were you waiting at our old spot / In the tree line by the gold clock”? Was he waiting “out of the woods,” in the safety of their familiar past?
The “gold clock” references Taylor’s golden love metaphor (originally from Daylight, but continued in several songs). But a clock means that the clock is ticking on their future. Time is running out for them to prioritize each other.
“Did I leave you hanging every single day?” she asks. Did she forget to come meet him every time?
This ties back into the theme of being or not being prioritized (“sorry for not making you my centerfold”). She forgot to keep her promises, and never met up with him in the space where they could work.
The male perspective asks: “Were you standing in the hallway / With a big cake, happy birthday”? Was she standing there, waiting to celebrate him, but he didn’t show up, just like she didn’t show up to the treeline?
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The hallway is significant, just like the treeline: it’s a space that leads from one landscape to another. It represents the point in time where things could move to the next step.
But neither of them meet the other in that space. They stay where they are, not appreciating or considering each other or their relationship.
“Did I paint your bluest skies the darkest grey?” he asks her, using a common Taylor color scheme to convey her emotions over being let down (see Dear John, Red, Cold As You and So it Goes).
They both say to each other they’re “a universe away”: there’s a great divide between them that they can’t bridge.
He continues: “And when I got into the accident / The sight that flashed before me was your face.” His life flashed before his eyes, and all he saw was her face. This could allude to the accident from Out of the Woods (also alluded to with “the treeline”).
She replies: “But when I walked up to the podium / I think that I forgot to say your name.” She casually forgets to thank him in her “lifetime achievement” acceptance speech. Are they really that important to each other?
Outro: “I Think That I Forgot to Say Your Name / Over and Over”
They both repeat the final chorus and outro together, both wondering where the other went. They used to be an amusement park, but the sun goes down, it gets cold, and the “bright lights” of their love dim one final time.
“When the sun goes down,” they say to one another, “the sight that flashed before me was your face.” When the world goes dark, they only think of one another. But it’s not because of love; it’s because they are each other’s biggest regret.
“I forgot to say your name / over and over” is acknowledging this regret: they didn’t prioritize one another, and it all fell apart.
“Sorry for not making you my centerfold” are the last words they say to one another. They’re both at fault; both equally culpable. The sun has gone down, and now all they can see in the darkness is heart-wrenching guilt.
coney island Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts
This song is a heartbreaking duet about what went wrong, and not caring enough to fix it. It’s bound in apathy: they can point to mistakes and omissions they made throughout their relationship, but there are no promises to do better.
There are only apologies, lists of how they let each other down, and a regretful moving on. Will they do better with their next partners? Will they find someone who is easy to make their “centerfold”?
It’s hard to say. Neither of them seem to want to change, and like an abandoned theme park or shopping mall, they stand empty shells of themselves, wanting to be loved, but not knowing how to do it.
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More Songs From evermore:
![Cover image for Swiftly Sung Stories' lyrical analysis of Taylor Swift's "Run" ft. Ed Sheeran (Taylor's Version) [From the Vault]. Red stylized title text pops over a background of aged books.](https://swiftlysungstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/taylor-swift-run-meaning-cover-image-768x768.jpg)
![Cover image for Swiftly Sung Stories' lyrical analysis of Taylor Swift's "I Bet You Think About Me" ft. Chris Stapleton (Taylor's Version) [From the Vault]. Red stylized title text pops over a background of aged books.](https://swiftlysungstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/taylor-swift-i-bet-you-think-about-me-meaning-cover-image-768x768.jpg)
