Dissecting Taylor’s “evermore” Prologue, Line by Line (Full Text)
Taylor Swift’s album prologues give insight into her mindset, creative choices, and the themes and tone of the albums that follow.
While folklore may have been her biggest musical and lyrical transformation of her career, evermore is almost a continuation of these themes, sound, and intricate lyricism.
But evermore is, indeed, a separate album. What can we learn from the evermore prologue, and what does it tell us about the album, Taylor’s life while writing it, and her creative process?
Here’s the full text of Taylor’s evermore prologue: what it says, what it means, and how it informs the album and her creative life.
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Context: The folklore & evermore Era
Taylor dropped folklore and evermore only six months apart, both during the COVID pandemic’s height in 2020.
But prior to this era of isolation, Taylor had gone through catastrophic, and very public, grief. Ownership of her first six albums, from debut to reputation, was sold. But her life’s work wasn’t sold to some unknown entity: it was sold from her former manager (whom she considered family) to her arch nemesis.
Swifties refer to this situation as “the masters heist,” and it devastated Taylor personally and professionally (for more context on this situation, watch the Miss Americana documentary for a first-person account).
The masters heist had already put a kink in her planned tour for Lover (as she couldn’t perform any of her past songs), and then when the pandemic hit in March of 2020, every plan she had went out the window.
Taylor – like the rest of the world – was in isolation, and folklore and evermore (folkmore? everlore?) are products of isolation, both sonically and lyrically. Many of the themes, stories, characters and imagery are informed by her deep rumination during this time.
What was she ruminating on, and is it a different subject than she pondered in folklore? Let’s find out.
evermore Prologue: Full Text (2020)
“To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music. We chose to wander deeper in and my collaborators and I are proud to announce that my 9th studio album and folklore’s sister record is here. It’s called evermore.
I’ve never done this before. In the past I’ve always treated albums as onе-off eras and moved onto planning the nеxt one as soon as an album was released. There was something different with folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning. I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found. So I just kept writing them. And I loved creating these songs with Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, WB, and Justin Vernon. We’ve also welcomed some new (and longtime) friends to our musical kitchen table this time around…
Before I knew it there were 17 tales, some of which are mirrored or intersecting with one another. The one about two young con artists who fall in love while hanging out at fancy resorts trying to score rich romantic beneficiaries. The one where longtime college sweethearts had very different plans for the same night, one to end it and one who brought a ring. Dorothea, the girl who left her small town to chase down Hollywood dreams – and what happens when she comes back for the holidays and rediscovers an old flame. The ‘unhappily ever after’ anthology of marriages gone bad that includes infidelity, ambivalent toleration, and even murder. The most righteous motive, to avenge the fallen. The realization that maybe the only path to healing is to wish happiness on the one who took it away from you. One starring my grandmother, Marjorie, who still visits me sometimes…if only in my dreams.
I wanted to surprise you with this the week of my 31st birthday. You’ve all been so caring, supportive and thoughtful on my birthdays and so this time I wanted to give you something! I also know this holiday season will be a lonely one for most of us and if there are any of you out there who turn to music to cope with missing loved ones the way I do, this is for you.
I have no idea what will come next. I have no idea about a lot of things these days and so I’ve clung to the one thing that keeps me connected to you all. That thing always has and always will be music.
And may it continue, evermore.
Taylor”
-Taylor Swift, evermore Prologue (2020)
🤎 Can you tolerate my evermore Lyrics Quiz? 🤎
Analyzing the evermore Prologue: What it Really Means
Now that we’ve read the folklore and evermore prologues, let’s dissect their real meaning.
Here’s my full English teacher analysis of Taylor’s 9th album prologue, and what it means for her career, her creative life, her eras, and her songwriting trajectory.
On Her Inspirations
“There was something different with folklore. In making it, I felt less like I was departing and more like I was returning. I loved the escapism I found in these imaginary/not imaginary tales. I loved the ways you welcomed the dreamscapes and tragedies and epic tales of love lost and found. So I just kept writing them.”
If making folklore felt like “returning,” what was Taylor returning to? First, we need to figure out what she was running away from.
She had left her longtime label right before Lover, and was now with a label that allowed her full creative control: no more censorship, no more cherry-picking songs. Notice how her albums went from 12-ish songs to upwards of 30 after reputation? That’s the difference the change of label made.
I’d argue that with folklore and evermore, she’s returning to creative flexibility: doing what she wants, when she wants to do it.
But she’s also “returning to” personal freedom. Her albums up until folklore were mostly diaristic, based on her own life and loves. But this model, as she’s admitted, was unsustainable. Especially after the harsh spotlight grew to burn her skin, she needed a way to write about her life…without writing about her life.
folklore – fiction obscured with truth, and truth obscured with fiction – was the way to do that. In evermore, she continues writing in this way, using “imaginary/not imaginary tales” to write about real emotions using fictional situations and characters.
But what she’s also getting at is the “escapism” of not being in an album release/tour cycle. She finally got to hit the pause button on her career machine (albeit not by choice, but also not because of a media storm). She got to indulge in her “dreamscapes,” undistracted by the demands of a very demanding career.
As the great Zelda Fitzgerald said, “She refused to be bored chiefly because she wasn’t boring.” Taylor is certainly never boring, and doesn’t allow herself to be bored, because there is inspiration all around, all the time, even if she’s holed up at home.
On The “Why” of The Album
“To put it plainly, we just couldn’t stop writing songs. To try and put it more poetically, it feels like we were standing on the edge of the folklorian woods and had a choice: to turn and go back or to travel further into the forest of this music.”
If “the folklorian woods” is the central dreamscape of these sister albums, what’s outside the forest?
In the clearing, beyond the trees, is diaristic songwriting: lyrics based on real life. The demands of the pop music industry. The relentless Taylor Swift corporate machine.
Inside the woods, life is calmer. Quieter. More introspective. More flexible.
But just because there was a pandemic didn’t mean she couldn’t continue with the pop-style albums of the past; there was a demand for her music, no matter the style. So what really changed with folklore and evermore?
I’d argue that her creative relationship with herself changed, and all the rules went out the window.
It helps, of course, that she was now with a label that allowed her creative control, unlike the owners of her first six albums. She now dictated what was on her albums, how they were promoted, and how they were released.
But it seems she also found a freedom within herself, and allowed herself “to travel further into the forest of this music.” There was a freedom within fiction that her previous songwriting style didn’t allow her to pursue, but she found it in creating her own narratives.
She forged her own path ahead, even if it looked very different than the previous roads traveled.
On the Contents of evermore
“Before I knew it there were 17 tales, some of which are mirrored or intersecting with one another.”
Like folklore, evermore contains parallel and intersecting songs: telling the same narrative, but from multiple points of view. On folklore, this was centrally explored in betty, cardigan, and august.
In evermore, ‘tis the damn season and dorothea seem to be the stories that intersect, one from Dorothea’s perspective, and one from the point of view of the love she left behind.
But there are also songs on evermore that don’t intersect, but run parallel in themes, metaphors, and motifs.
I’d argue that ivy and willow run parallel to one another, both containing similar nature motifs, metaphors, and pining for love.
ivy, tolerate it, and no body, no crime run similarly beside each other, in what Taylor describes as “the ‘unhappily ever after’ anthology of marriages gone bad.”
But which songs are, according to Taylor, “mirrored”?
right where you left me and it’s time to go seem like opposites of one another. In the first, she’s stuck, and in the second, she decides it’s finally time to get unstuck.
happiness, evermore, and closure also reflect one another in theme and message: accepting that pain won’t last forever, and that you can move on without forgiveness.
We can see she’s circling the same central themes: being lost, being found, and what it means to move on.
On Her Songwriting Trajectory
“In the past I’ve always treated albums as onе-off eras and moved onto planning the nеxt one as soon as an album was released…
I have no idea what will come next. I have no idea about a lot of things these days and so I’ve clung to the one thing that keeps me connected to you all.”
Here, Taylor addresses her album cycles directly. She never had time to pause and create just for the sake of creating; it had always been with a larger goal in mind.
Her previous routine, up until reputation, was a 2-year plan. Every two years, she’d release a new studio album, tour, and begin the cycle all over again.
Post-1989, in her reputation hideaway, this cycle was interrupted. Then the pandemic interrupted the beginning of another cycle, Lover being released two years after reputation, and the tour being canceled due to COVID.
As she addressed in the Miss Americana documentary, her life is always planned several years in advance. But at this point, she says, “I have no idea what will come next.”
Have you ever had a friend cancel your dinner plans, and suddenly become delighted that you have a free evening all to yourself? This is similar to what happened post-Lover. All of a sudden, her world – and her schedule – was wide open.
But just because she couldn’t travel or record in a studio didn’t mean she’d quit writing. “I’ve clung to the one thing that keeps me connected to you all,” she says, “That thing always has and always will be music.”
The larger implications of this, even after she’d begun a new 2-year cycle with Midnights and The Tortured Poets Department, is that her newfound creativity would inform every album to come. In isolation, her songwriting evolved, and it would never be the same.
🤎 Can you tolerate my evermore Lyrics Quiz? 🤎
On The Characters & Stories of evermore
“The one about two young con artists who fall in love while hanging out at fancy resorts trying to score rich romantic beneficiaries. The one where longtime college sweethearts had very different plans for the same night, one to end it and one who brought a ring. Dorothea, the girl who left her small town to chase down Hollywood dreams – and what happens when she comes back for the holidays and rediscovers an old flame. The ‘unhappily ever after’ anthology of marriages gone bad that includes infidelity, ambivalent toleration, and even murder. The most righteous motive, to avenge the fallen. The realization that maybe the only path to healing is to wish happiness on the one who took it away from you. One starring my grandmother, Marjorie, who still visits me sometimes…if only in my dreams.”
Though we don’t know all the protagonists of evermore, Taylor introduces a few of them.
The “two young con artists” of cowboy like me “fall in love” unexpectedly. The “longtime college sweethearts” of champagne problems “had very different plans for the same night,” breaking up instead of getting engaged.
“Dorothea,” the narrator of ‘tis the damn season, “left her small town to chase down Hollywood dreams” in her character’s titular song. The “unhappily ever after anthology” of no body, no crime, ivy, and tolerate it are all “marriages gone bad.”
But then her list of protagonists seems to get personal: “the realization that maybe the only path to healing is to wish happiness on the one who took it away from you,” likely alluding to the song happiness. Is she talking about herself?
As she did with folklore, she’s blending fiction with reality, blurring the line between truth and fantasy so that we can no longer recognize who our protagonist really is.
She’s still an unreliable narrator, and she uses this tool to distance herself from stories that may be about her own experiences. We just don’t get to know whether they’re about her own experiences or not.
On the Meaning of “evermore”
“That thing always has and always will be music. And may it continue, evermore.”
“I’ve clung to the one thing that keeps me connected to you all,” she said previously, and here she adds: “that thing always has and always will be music.”
She then ties in the title: “and may it continue, evermore.” This old-fashioned word means “forever in the future”. In this context, she hopes that she’ll always be connected to her fans, no matter what kind of music she’s writing. She hopes that she’ll be able to continue this rewarding creative pursuit forever.
But evermore is also the title track, which says, essentially: ‘I thought this pain would last forever, but now I’ve learned that it won’t last forever.’ The song narrates a pause in life, where the narrator reflects on where she’s come from, how to heal, and how to continue with optimism.
Symbolically, the song evermore represents the theme of the album: moving on, learning lessons, and saying difficult goodbyes.
But the songs within the album aren’t the only goodbyes. With the evermore album, she’s also saying goodbye to the folklorian woods. This 2-album era is now over, where she got to indulge in anything, and everything, she wanted to write about.
She hopes that the creativity, and her new style of songwriting, will continue “evermore.” And it will, as she carries pieces of this new style into Midnights and TTPD.
On Her Collaborators
“I loved creating these songs with Aaron Dessner, Jack Antonoff, WB, and Justin Vernon. We’ve also welcomed some new (and longtime) friends to our musical kitchen table this time around…”
Taylor rarely mentions her collaborators in her prologues, but she does in this album. It’s ironic, as this album was made in isolation. Who helped her with this new sound and style?
Jack Antonoff is, of course, her longtime collaborator since her 1989 era. Whether you’re a fan or not, his collaboration opened new creative doors for our songwriter.
Aaron Dessner – of The National – was new to Taylor’s production team beginning with folklore, continuing into Midnights and TTPD. I’d argue that much of the indie/folk sound of the sister albums can be attributed to his contributions.
Justin Vernon – of Bon Iver – also entered Taylor’s world beginning in folklore, and they’ve written some incredible songs together.
But who is “WB”? William Bowery, of course, who is – according to Taylor – a pen name for her then-boyfriend Joe Alwyn. There is a ton of curiosity and chatter surrounding this collaborator, but for our purposes here, we’ll leave it at that.
Who are the “new (and longtime) friends” who also collaborated on evermore? There’s the Haim sisters, who sang on no body, no crime. And then there’s more of Aaron Dessner’s The National pals, including his brother Bryce Dessner, as well as lead singer Matt Berninger.
Marcus Mumford – of Mumford & Sons – also joined in on cowboy like me.
This is, of course, an incredible cast of talent joining Taylor in creating this record. I love that she acknowledges them in the prologue, especially in the context of her new sound and style.
Artists being inspired by – and crediting – other artists is vital. No one makes this level of music alone, and Taylor knows and acknowledges this outright.
On The “Sister Records”
“We chose to wander deeper in [to the folklorian woods] and my collaborators and I are proud to announce that my 9th studio album and folklore’s sister record is here. It’s called evermore.”
Both albums have a similar sound, similar songwriting style, and use the pseudo-fictional narrative style. But what else relates these two “sisters”?
The folklorian woods, where they both take place.
These are, by definition, pandemic albums. But something beautiful blossomed in isolation. As she told us, she “couldn’t stop writing,” and though evermore feels like folklore’s sequel, these albums are also different in their tone and theme.
The first album dives headfirst to fictional narratives, ornate imagery and symbolism, using alternate points of view to tell her stories. folklore seems to focus more on being lost and losing love, with songs like the 1, exile, cardigan, and the lakes. But it also has an optimism that evermore doesn’t.
If folklore was lost in the woods, wondering how it got there and what to do, evermore is slowly mapping her way out, trail by trail, and grieving the losses of her life.
Melancholy songs like happiness, evermore, right where you left me, and it’s time to go reflect on what went wrong, but also chart a new course in life and in love.
Though at the time, she didn’t know where she was going and “no idea what will come next,” you can see that song by song, she does get closure. She may not forgive, and she may not forget, but she does move on.
She’ll retain the lessons she learned forevermore, and use them in the albums and eras that follow. She’ll always live partially in these woods, because that’s where her spring of creative freedom really began to flow.
🤎 Can you tolerate my evermore Lyrics Quiz? 🤎
evermore Prologue: Final Thoughts
If we look at Taylor Swift’s career as a hero’s journey, folklore and evermore are step 9: “atonement with the father.”
In this narrative structure, this is the point at which our hero confronts themselves, learning why the journey has happened, how its changed them, and where they go from here. This is always a major turning point in the story, and determines how it will end.
So how will it end? We’ll have to stay tuned to this mastermind’s journey to find out. But one thing is for sure: she’s in charge of her destiny, now and forevermore.
Analyzing Songs From evermore:
- willow
- champagne problems
- gold rush
- ‘tis the damn season
- tolerate it
- no body, no crime
- happiness
- dorothea
- coney island
- ivy
- cowboy like me
- long story short
- marjorie
- closure
- evermore
- right where you left me
- it’s time to go
More Album Prologues
