Is Taylor’s “Last Kiss” Her Saddest Song Ever? Full Lyrical Analysis
Taylor Swift’s 13th track on Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) is the somber, sorrowful Last Kiss.
The song looks back over a relationship’s happier times, as she tries to figure out where it all went wrong.
What’s the significance of the “last kiss,” why was the secret message the contradictory “forever and always,” and why did Taylor call this “the saddest song I’ve ever written”?
Here’s my full English teacher analysis of Swift’s Last Kiss meaning, line by line.

Last Kiss (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift
- Title: Last Kiss (Taylor’s Version)
- Track: 13, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
- Written By: Taylor Swift
- Secret Message: “forever and always”
- Lyrics from Genius
Last Kiss: Narrative Summary
- Setting: After a breakup, looking back on the relationship and its ending.
- Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (ex, “you”)
- Theme: Unforeseen circumstances.
- Mood: Sad, confused, grieving
- Conflict: “You told me you loved me, so why did you go away?”
- Inciting Incident: He broke up with her, in a surprising or sudden way.
- Quest: Try to figure out what went wrong and grieve her loss.
- Lesson: Sometimes you’re doing something for the very last time, and you won’t know until it’s too late.
What is Last Kiss About?
Last Kiss is an emotional ballad that describes losing a lover. Taylor reflects on the happier times in the relationship, and narrates her grief after their breakup.
Taylor said, upon the original release of the song:
“The song ‘Last Kiss’ is sort of like a letter to somebody. You say all of these desperate, hopeless feelings that you have after a break-up. Going through a breakup you feel all of these different things. You feel anger, and you feel confusion, and frustration.
Then there is the absolute sadness. The sadness of losing this person, losing all the memories, and the hopes you had for the future. There are times when you have this moment of truth where you just admit to yourself that you miss all these things.
When I was in one of those moments I wrote this song.”
–Taylor Swift, (since deleted from her website)
Who is Last Kiss About?
Most fans speculate that Last Kiss is about Taylor’s breakup with Joe Jonas, whom she dated during her Fearless era.
The hidden message in the lyric booklet spelled out “forever and always,” alluding to a previous Fearless track that may have also been written about Jonas.
But moreover, Last Kiss is about Taylor’s heartbreak, how she was blindsided by this breakup, and how she’s trying to come to terms with losing love.
Last Kiss Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line

After the 27-second intro, which could allude to the alleged 27-second breakup phone call Taylor received from Joe Jonas, Taylor begins the first verse looking back.
“I still remember the look on your face,” she says, “Lit through the darkness at 1:58.” They were up late into the night, either in person or on a Skype call (it wasn’t yet the era of FaceTime!).
“The words that you whispered for just us to know,” she says of his confessions during this encounter, “You told me you loved me, so why did you go away?” He whispered that he loved her, and she clings to this past moment. If he loved her, why did he break up with her?
“I do recall now, the smell of the rain,” she says, taking us back to another anecdote of their relationship.
Rain for Taylor usually symbolizes magic movie moments, like in songs like Fearless (“there’s something ‘bout the way the street looks when it’s just rained”), Hey Stephen (“can’t help it if I want to kiss you in the rain”), and The Way I Loved You (“I miss screamin’ and fightin’ and kissin’ in the rain”).
Here, the rain conjures a sensory memory of happier times. The rain was “fresh on the pavement,” as “I ran off the plane.” It’s a cinematic moment: her plane touches down, and he’s waiting for her on the wet tarmac.
But the rain “fresh on the pavement” also foreshadows something darker. There’s some kind of rebirth or big change coming, signaled by the storm.
“That July ninth,” she says, giving us a time stamp. This is likely a date that only the two of them know is significant, but Swifties will run with it and use it in several theories.
On that day in July, “the beat of your heart / It jumps through your shirt.” His heart is beating loudly just for her, nearly leaping out of his shirt in anticipation. He used to feel so strongly for her, so what happened?
“I can still feel your arms,” she says, holding this memory close, with the ghost of his love encircling her. She’s reminding herself of what she used to have, and doesn’t have anymore.
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1st Pre-Chorus & Chorus: “I Don’t Know How to Be Something You Miss”

“But now I’ll go,” she says in the first pre-chorus, sadly shrugging and trying to leave these memories behind. But where does she go? Back to the memories of him.
She’ll “Sit on the floor wearin’ your clothes,” wrapping herself in the only thing she has left of him. Like the iconic scarf in the later All Too Well, the clothing symbolizes what they used to have.
“All that I know is I don’t know,” she says in confusion, “How to be somethin’ you miss.” She wishes she could change herself into someone worthy of being missed. She doesn’t know where she went wrong, and how she ended up this way. Was it her?
“I never thought we’d have a last kiss,” she laments, “I never imagined we’d end like this.”
Of course, every relationship has a last kiss, whether due to breakups or death. So what does the last kiss really mean? Being connected. Being understood. Being loved.
Their “last kiss” represents the last time she felt understood and safe.
But now that her world has turned upside down, all she has left is “Your name, forever the name on my lips.” She’s ruminating, only able to think of him.
Like in the later cardigan, “I knew you’d linger like a tattoo kiss”, he’s marked her forever, and she can’t get rid of thoughts of him, even if she wanted to.
Verse 2: “Not a Day I Don’t Miss Those Rude Interruptions”

The second verse gives us some characterization to this ex-boyfriend.
“I do remember the swing of your step,” she says of his cheerful energy. To have “swing in your step” is to walk with happy confidence.
He was, “The life of the party, you’re showin’ off again.” He’s the center of attention, and she’s annoyed that he’s taking it a bit over the top, showing off in front of a group of friends.
“And I’d roll my eyes,” she said of these many moments when he was posturing, “and then you’d pull me in.” Her annoyance fades when he directs his attention back to her, in a playful, flirtatious moment. He pulls her back into his orbit, and she remembers why she loves him.
“I’m not much for dancin’,” she says of her shyness, “but for you, I did.” But this isn’t just physical dancing at a party. Taylor often uses dancing as a metaphor for love and relationships, like the “dance of love” in Fearless, Dancing With Our Hands Tied, cowboy like me, Holy Ground, and more.
For him, she was no longer gunshy: she jumped into the dance of love with both feet, taking a chance.
“Because I love your handshake meetin’ my father,” she remembers, reflecting on a moment where she admired his maturity and confidence. But it’s also important to note that this is in present tense: “I love”, not “I loved.”
“I love how you walk with your hands in your pockets,” she says, again in present tense. She thinks of his little quirks, and it reminds her how much she still loves him.
But hands in pockets usually symbolizes shyness or something hidden. He’s not shy, so this foreshadows something darker: he’s concealing something, which she’ll discover later.
“How you’d kiss me when I was in the middle of saying something,” she says, which – on the surface – means he didn’t respect her voice or her autonomy.
But she remembers it fondly instead: “There’s not a day I don’t miss those rude interruptions.” She’d give anything to go back to these moments, even though she was annoyed by them at the time.
Bridge: “I Feel You Forget Me”

The bridge narrates where she’ll go from here, after he’s long gone.
“So I’ll watch your life in pictures like I used to watch you sleep,” she says. The closest she can get to him now is on social media, or (if this is about Joe Jonas) tabloid photo spreads.
The contrast here is palpable: they used to be so close that she could watch him in his most vulnerable moments, but now, she has to see him through a screen.
“And I feel you forget me like I used to feel you breathe,” she reflects on their severed connection. Even though they’re no longer together, she still has a sort of twin flame bond, where she feels him moving farther and farther away.
“And I’ll keep up with our old friends just to ask them how you are,” she says of their former shared friend group. Like in champagne problems, “how evergreen our group of friends, don’t think we’ll say that word again.”
“Hope it’s nice where you are,” she says. But it’s unclear if she’s really wishing him well, or if this is a sarcastic dig. Either way, it’s not nice where she is. It’s a world of pain and loss.
Verse 3: “I Never Planned on You Changing Your Mind”

“And I hope the sun shines and it’s a beautiful day,” she says of his current location in the third verse. But again, it’s unclear whether she means this sincerely. He broke her heart, so does she really wish him happy days?
She hopes that, wherever he is, that “something reminds you you wish you had stayed.” Like Come in With the Rain, she hopes that something – anything – signals him to come to his senses, and find his way back to her.
“You can plan for a change in the weather and time,” she says, tying the weather metaphors, “But I never planned on you changing your mind.”
She can lay out her life to be prepared for anything, even the worst weather. But she couldn’t foresee the storm that would descend on their relationship, wiping out everything that used to be.
Final Chorus & Outro: “Just Like Our Last –“

“So I’ll go,” she laments once more in the final pre-chorus, “Sit on the floor wearin’ your clothes.” She hopes he’s having a “beautiful day,” but she’s sitting on the floor, alone, wearing the only thing that’s left of him.
She wonders what she did wrong, and if there’s a way to go back and change the past, to be “something you miss.” But she can’t.
“I never thought we’d have a last kiss,” which really means, ‘I thought we understood each other so much better than this.’ The “last kiss” was the last time she felt she really knew him, and it’s devastating that she can’t find her way back into his heart again.
“I never imagined we’d end like this,” she says once more, “Your name, forever the name on my lips / Just like our last kiss.” The last time their lips touched left her permanently scarred, and the scar spells out the name of her lost love.
“Forever the name on my lips,” she says, “Just like our last.”
The lyric cuts off without the final word: “kiss.” She literally and symbolically closes the song, without the last “kiss”, and it’s a devastating end to a devastating song.
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Last Kiss Meaning: Final Thoughts
Taylor said in the Speak Now TV prologue that this is “the saddest song I’ve ever written.” But she said it in the era before we got The Tortured Poets Department.
It is an absolutely devastating song, and her metaphors and memories jump off the page to create a lonely, grief-stricken atmosphere. The secret message, “forever and always,” really comes to mean that she’ll miss this person – and long for this person – forever, which is tragic.
Today, I don’t think it can compare to gut-punch tracks like You’re Losing Me and So Long, London, but the beautiful thing about Taylor’s work is that it means completely different things to different people.
What do you think: Is this Taylor’s saddest song ever? Or is it just one of many?
More Songs From Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
- Speak Now Album Prologues Compared
- Mine
- Sparks Fly
- Back to December
- Speak Now
- Dear John
- Mean
- The Story of Us
- Never Grow Up
- Enchanted
- Better Than Revenge
- Innocent
- Haunted
- Long Live
- Ours
- Superman
- Electric Touch (ft Fall Out Boy) [From the Vault]
- When Emma Falls in Love [From the Vault]
- I Can See You [From the Vault]
- Castles Crumbling (ft. Hayley Williams) [From the Vault]
- Foolish One [From the Vault]
- Timeless [From the Vault]