A Crooked Love: Analyzing Taylor’s “I Wish You Would” Meaning
I Wish You Would, the seventh track from Taylor’s iconic 1989 album, is a sad look back at a past relationship that ended without closure.
In the lyrics, Taylor tries to turn back time to find a way to change the present. But hindsight isn’t always 20/20, and this relationship was tumultuous from the start.
How does it relate to the other songs in 1989 and to Taylor’s songwriting at large?
Here’s my complete English teacher analysis of Taylor’s I Wish You Would meaning, line by line.

I Wish You Would (Taylor’s Version)
- Title: I Wish You Would (Taylor’s Version)
- Written by: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff
- Track: 7, 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
- Pen: Fountain
- Lyrics from Genius
I Wish You Would Analysis: Narrative Synopsis
- Setting: 2am in various places, and inside Taylor’s hopes & regrets.
- Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (“you,” on-again off-again lover)
- Mood: Regretful, frustrated.
- Conflict: You can’t change the past.
- Inciting Incident: He drives past her house in the middle of the night.
- Quest: Tell him the things she never got to say.
- Symbols & Metaphors: time (future vs. past), driving, windows, telephones, headlights, pushing buttons, madness, 2am.
- Theme: Longing to change the past.
- Imagery: “Headlights pass the window pane,” “crooked love in a straight line down,” “This mad, mad love makes you come runnin’,”See your face, hear my voice in the dark”
- Lesson: Hindsight is not always 20/20.
What is I Wish You Would About?
I Wish You Would is about past relationship regrets, and wishing you could turn back the clock and do things differently.
Taylor describes all the things she and her ex could have done differently, which may have changed their future together.
Who is I Wish You Would About?
It’s likely about Harry Styles, with whom Taylor had an on-again off-again relationship before the 1989 era.
Many of the songs in 1989 contain similar themes of driving, headlights, and breaking up and getting back together; these songs (Style, Out of the Woods, etc) are all posited to be about Harry.
But no matter which ex it’s about, it’s more so about looking at your present through the lens of the past, and not being able to move on until you’ve said everything you needed to say.
I Wish You Would Meaning: Line by Line

The opening verse gives us the setting: “2am in your car.” The narrator is telling the story of the song’s subject, who is driving at night. 2am is a time of regret and rumination in Taylor’s songbook, and it’s no different here.
“Windows down, you pass my street, the memories start,” she says. He’s driving – maybe literally or maybe metaphorically – and it kickstarts some vivid memories in his brain.
Windows in this song – and there will be a few – could be important, as representing a ‘window to the past’ or ‘window to your soul.’ Taylor often uses window metaphors to convey looking forwards or backwards.
He shakes off the memories as they arise. “You say, ‘it’s in the past’, you drive straight ahead.” He keeps metaphorically ‘driving past’ these memories, trying to forget them.
“You’re thinkin’ that I hate you now ‘cause you still don’t know what I never said.” She’s imagining that this is what he’s thinking, but it’s not true.
But what is true? She never got to say the things that really mattered. They broke up, maybe in a fit of anger, and she didn’t get to tell him how she really felt.
This song will let him know exactly what she feels, and it’s heartbreaking.
Chorus: “I Wish You Would Come Back”

The chorus details what she really wants him to know: “I wish you would come back.” This could mean that she wants to be with him again, or that she wants him to come back so they can gain closure over how it ended.
She has lots of regrets: “Wish I never hung up the phone like I did.” This could be a literal phone, but it could also represent the ‘hangups’ of the relationship, or her ‘hanging up’ the phone of their love.
She wants him to know that “I’ll never forget you as long as I live.” No matter how it ended – and if it will rekindle or not – she will always remember him.
“Wish you were right here, right now,” means she wants him in front of her. Is it to get back together? Or is it so they can have one last chat? It’s unclear, but she needs him.
“It’s all good,” could mean she’s not mad at him anymore, or it could represent all the good things she’s remembering about him; the reasons why she won’t forget him.
🩵🩵 Can you pass the 1989 TV Lyrics Quiz? 🩵🩵
Verse 2: “A Crooked Love in a Straight Line Down”

The second verse gives us Taylor’s perspective, at “2am in my room.” In the middle of the night in bedrooms is significant in the Taylorverse, and usually means a time of deep contemplation about longing.
“Headlights pass the window pane” conjures windows again, as being able to see clearly or catch a glimpse of something.
The reflection of his headlights driving past catches her eye. “I think of you.” This bit is interesting: unless she can see his car, she wouldn’t be able to tell they’re his headlights. It could be any car. So why do headlights remind her of him?
It likely calls back to “come and pick me up, no headlights” of Style and the car crash metaphors of Out of the Woods. Driving and headlights are associated with this person for her.
In her previous discography, Taylor has used cars and driving to symbolize freedom and young love. But with this particular person, cars and headlights represent danger: things hidden vs. illuminated, and crashes vs. ‘long drives.’
“We’re a crooked love in a straight line down” is a very clever bit of lyricism and a great oxymoron. You can’t be crooked and straight at the same time, so what does this mean?
Their “love” was “crooked” – they didn’t “drive” straight ahead; there were lots of starts and stops and detours. There was no straight line from there to here; it’s been a zig-zag.
The “crooked love” “makes you want to run and hide then it makes you turn right back around.” The existence of their “crookedness” is what turns him away AND what keeps him coming back.
Is he addicted to the back and forth? Is it more exciting than driving straight ahead? Just like in Style, they go “round and round each time,” never going straight ahead.
Chorus: “Remember What We Were Fightin’ for”

The second chorus adds more lines. “I wish we could go back and remember what we were fightin’ for,” she says. She wants to turn back the clock and have a re-do.
“Remember what we were fightin’ for” reminds us of “the monsters turned out to be just trees” from Out of the Woods. The fighting was all for something that didn’t really matter, or that was just an illusion.
Can they go back and gain clarity, and remember why this was worth it in the first place? Once they gain perspective, will it make more sense why they should (or shouldn’t) give it another try?
Bridge: “You Always Knew How to Push My Buttons”

The bridge gives us a bit more characterization of their relationship. “You always knew how to push my buttons,” she says.
To push someone’s buttons means to irritate them by exploiting a specific vulnerability. But it can also mean that – sexually – that you know how to please your partner.
Which one is it in this case? Maybe a bit of both. But it also implies a tempestuous relationship.
“You give me everything and nothin’” recalls a similar lyric: “all you had to do was stay.” She was his – he gave her everything. But then he yanks it away by leaving.
“This mad, mad love makes you come runnin’” paints their romance as insane, but it also paints Taylor as mad like in Blank Space. She’s the “mad love” he comes running to, and the wild, passionate romance that is addictive for both of them.
The “mad love” makes him come back “to stand right where you stood.” This is likely referencing their breakups and makeups. He comes back and stands in the place of ‘her man’, then he quickly disappears again. Can he ever stand still, by her side?
The repeating “I wish I” emphasizes all these conflicting emotions she’s feeling: it was lovely, and terrible, and they did so much wrong. She wants it all back, and she wants none of it back simultaneously.
3rd Verse: “Made Us Turn Right Back Around”

In the final verse, they finally come together in present tense at “2 am, here we are.” This implies that they’re reconciled.
“See your face, hear my voice in the dark” could mean that he’s come into her room in the night. But you also can’t “see your face in the dark”, so what does the darkness mean?
It’s playing with the themes of dark and light: headlights, windows, the path ahead, and the road not taken. Since they’re in the dark now, all is still not clear. They can’t see where they’re going.
This time she describes the “crooked love” as what “made us turn right back around” instead of “makes you turn right back around.”
The “mad” and “crooked” passion has made both of them turn back toward each other. Or is it just another detour?
Outro: “This Mad, Mad Love”
![Lyrical breakdown of Taylor Swift's song 'I Wish You Would,' with a serene sky background. The analysis highlights phrases and metaphors for literary analysis. The piece is credited to 'Taylor Swift, "I Wish You Would" (Taylor's Version)' and is a part of the 'Swiftly Sung Stories' series.
The final outro reads: "[Outro]
You always knew how to push my buttons (I, I-I-I, I, I, I wish, I wish, I)
You give me everything and nothin' (I, I-I-I, I, I, I wish, I wish, I)
This mad, mad love makes you come runnin' (I, I-I-I, I, I, I wish, I wish, I)
To stand back where you stood (I, I-I-I, I, I, I wish, I wish, I)
I wish you would, I wish you would
(I wish you would, I wish you would)
(I, I-I-I, I, I, I wish, I wish, I)
I wish you would, I wish you would
(I wish you would, I wish you would, I wish you would, I wish you would)
(I, I-I-I, I, I, I wish, I wish, I)
I, I-I-I, I, I, I wish, I wish, I
I, I-I-I, I, I, I wish, I wish, I
I wish you would"](https://swiftlysungstories.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/this-mad-mad-love-makes-you-come-running-i-wish-you-would-lyrics-1024x1024.jpg)
The final outro repeats the central messages over and over again: what Taylor wishes had gone differently.
In this “mad mad love” (her insanity, his insanity, and their insanity together), she wishes maybe that it weren’t quite so mad.
It concludes with “I wish you would.” So what does she wish he would do? Let’s recap:
- “Stand back where you stood”
- “Give me everything and nothing”
- “Go back, remember what we were fightin’ for”
- “Knew that I’ll never forget you as long as I live”
- “Wish you were right here, right now”
- “Wish I’d never hung up the phone like I did.”
The most interesting message to me – out of all these mixed messages – is “stand back where you stood.” Where he stood with her before was never on solid ground; it was always treacherous.
I think we can conclude that they’re both addicted to this back and forth, the “madness” of it all.
Does she miss the chaos and excitement? Does she just want closure? I think it’s all of the above.
This relationship likely concludes with Clean, where Taylor uses several addiction metaphors to describe her “withdrawal” from this person. Here, we get to see why he was so addicting in the first place.
🩵🩵 Can you pass the 1989 TV Lyrics Quiz? 🩵🩵
I Wish You Would Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts
Inside Taylor’s manic and regretful brain in this track, it’s a chaotic train of thought. She wants to turn back time, but the time she wants to go back to wasn’t exactly rosy.
Overall, this song is about loving and hating the ups and downs of a turbulent relationship. I’ll bring you “everything and nothin’”. It’s the highest highs and the lowest lows.
One common theme that this song brings up is Taylor’s refusal of anything that’s steady and boring. She wants excitement, and passion, and never wants to know what comes next.
She wants to change the shaky past, but she also wants her future to be just as uncertain.
More Songs From 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
1989 Prologues: Original vs. Taylor’s Version
- Welcome to New York
- Blank Space
- Style
- Out of the Woods
- All You Had to Do Was Stay
- Shake it Off
- Bad Blood
- Wildest Dreams
- How You Get the Girl
- This Love
- I Know Places
- Clean
- Wonderland
- You Are in Love
- New Romantics
- Slut! [From the Vault]
- Say Don’t Go [From the Vault]
- Now That We Don’t Talk [From the Vault]
- Suburban Legends [From the Vault]
- Is it Over Now? [From the Vault]