Stains on the Soul: Explaining Taylor’s “Maroon” Meaning, Line by Line

Maroon, Taylor Swift’s complex track 2 from Midnights, uses deeply layered metaphors and symbolism to describe the downfall of a relationship. 

This song is like an encyclopedia of Taylor lore, and we need to use songs from previous albums to define and clarify the whole picture. 

Here’s my complete English teacher analysis of the Maroon lyrics’ meaning, line by line and metaphor by metaphor. 

Cover image for a lyrical analysis of Taylor Swift's "Maroon." A blue/purple starry sky background features bold text overlaid, with author's logo Swiftly Sung Stories at the bottom.

Maroon by Taylor Swift

  • Title: Maroon
  • Written by: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff
  • Track: 2, Midnights
  • Pen: Fountain 
  • Lyrics from Genius

Maroon Narrative Summary

  • Setting: In the present, looking back at a past love lost. 
  • Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (ex-lover, “you”) 
  • Mood: Reflective, sad, coming to a realization. 
  • Conflict: The relationship was not what it seemed at the time. 
  • Inciting Incident: Breakup, or several breakups. 
  • Quest: Try to understand what really happened, and what this relationship meant. 
  • Symbols & Metaphors: “maroon,” “incense,” “on the floor,” “rosé,” “I see you everyday now,” “the one I was dancing with in New York, no shoes,” “burgundy,” “wine,” “blood,” “scarlet,” “mark” on “collarbone,” “rust,” “call home”, “the silence,” “lose sight of us again,” “hollow-eyed in the hallway,” “carnations” vs. “roses,” “the rubies that I gave up,” “legacy” & “memory.”
  • Lesson: Hindsight is always 20/20. 

What is Maroon About? 

Track 2 from Midnights recalls a sleepless night in Taylor’s present, when she keeps dissecting and rehashing the past. 

The lyrics look back over a past relationship and love lost, reflecting on what went wrong and what was really happening. 

The central metaphor of “maroon” draws on her past uses of her “colors of love” that began in her Red era

Who is Maroon About? 

Taylor has never revealed who inspired the song. Given that Midnights is a concept album about sleepless nights throughout her life, it could be any number of her ex-lovers. 

Fans speculate that since the song alludes to her previous song and album Red (which supposedly centered around Jake Gyllenhaal), that the lyrics could be about him. 

But she also references dancing in New York in the lyrics, which could allude to the Met Gala with Tom Hiddleston in her post-Red 1989 era. 

We’ll probably never know if this song refers to a specific person or breakup, unless Taylor decides to tell us.

Maroon Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line

Please Note: I use gender neutral pronouns (they/them/theirs) to describe the love interest in Maroon, as the gender of the subject is not revealed in the lyrics. 

A blurred blue and purple background with portions of lyrics from Taylor Swift's song "Maroon," annotated to find hidden meanings and analyse her use of literary devices.
The first verse reads: 
"When the morning came

We were cleaning incense off your vinyl shelf

'Cause we lost track of time again

Laughing with my feet in your lap

Like you were my closest friend

"How'd we end up on the floor, anyway?" you say

"Your roommate's cheap-ass screw-top rosé, that's how"

I see you every day now"

The first verse begins in medias res – in the middle of the action. We’re not given any context until a bit further on. 

“When the morning came,” she begins, “we were cleaning incense off your vinyl shelf / ‘Cause we lost track of time again.” They awake or come to after a night of partying or having sex to find that the incense has burned all the way down. It’s now dust and ash, littering the record shelf. 

She’s “laughing with my feet in your lap,” describing a comfortable and intimate moment, “like you were my closest friend.” They’re more than just lovers, they’re good friends who simply enjoy each other’s company, too. 

“‘How’d we end up on the floor, anyway?’” they asked her. And she replies: “‘Your roommate’s cheap-ass screw-top rosé, that’s how’.” They drank cheap wine and ended up on the floor. 

It’s important to note that at this point, they’re drinking rosé, which is pink and bright. The color of the wine, like the color of their love, will get darker throughout the song. 

“I see you every day now,” she reflects. They’re all over her memory, and she can’t get rid of them.

Chorus: “The One I Was Dancing With In New York” 

A blurred blue and purple background with portions of lyrics from Taylor Swift's song "Maroon," annotated to find hidden meanings and analyse her use of literary devices.
The first chorus reads: "And I chose you

The one I was dancing with

In New York, no shoes

Looked up at the sky and it was

The burgundy on my t-shirt

When you splashed your wine into me

And how the blood rushed into my cheeks

So scarlet, it was

The mark thеy saw on my collarbone

The rust that grew bеtween telephones

The lips I used to call home

So scarlet, it was maroon"

“And I chose you,” she reflects. She had a choice, and she chose them, “the one I was dancing with in New York, no shoes.” 

Swifties will point to one particular dancing moment in Taylor’s history – the Met Gala with Tom Hiddleston – but I don’t think that’s the point here. Taylor uses New York to symbolize new beginnings and fresh starts, and I think that’s what she implies here. 

She was starting over, and she chose this person. She’ll come to regret it, but only in hindsight.

“No shoes” implies naivete or carelessness; she was being lighthearted, but should have taken it more seriously. There was nothing to protect her from cuts and scrapes.

“Looked up at the sky and it was,” she says, trying to get an overarching view of what’s happening. She’s looking for clues for what was to come. 

The sky was “the burgundy on my t-shirt when you splashed your wine into me.” This refers both to burgundy the wine variety, and burgundy the color. Unlike the bright, burning red of her past lyrics, burgundy is much darker. 

After they splashed the wine, “the blood rushed into my cheeks” from embarrassment. The blood was “so scarlet,” which describes both a deeper shade of red and alludes to a scarlet letter. 

Taylor frequently alludes to The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne in songs such as Illicit Affairs, New Romantics, Slut!, and more.

A scarlet ‘A’ marks a woman as an adulteress, which is what she alludes to here. She’s feeling shameful, symbolized by her blush. 

“The mark thеy saw on my collarbone,” she says, alluding to a hickey, which was also scarlet, and also shameful. “They” could mean another lover, her parents, her friends, or the media – it’s unclear who saw it. 

🌌 Are you a Mastermind? Try my Midnights Lyrics Quiz! 🌌

“The rust that grew bеtween telephones” describes a slow fading away of their romance. Rust is more of a dark brown, but could still be in the maroon/burgundy spectrum. It’s red if you add lots of brown, symbolizing a once exciting and passionate love rusting and turning dark. 

“The lips I used to call home” has a double meaning. It could mean that she used to call their lips “home”, like she belonged there and they made her comfortable and happy. 

But it could also mean that she used her lips to speak on the telephone, and that communication slowly disintegrated. 

All of these things – the sky, the wine stain, her cheeks, the hickey, the lips – were all “so scarlet, it was maroon.” 

Herein lies the central metaphor. What was once “burning red” passion has grown dark like blood. Looking back on her past, it all seems painful and regretful in hindsight. 

In the present, it felt incredible. But now? It looks maroon. 

But “maroon” itself has several meanings. First, it’s a dark red color. Second, it’s to be stranded, like “marooned” on a desert island.

The third – and the least common usage – is a warning firework. 

Here in the UK, a “maroon” is a warning flare. She’s looking back at all these past moments between them that should have been a warning signal to her. But she ignored every clue, or didn’t see the evidence right in front of her. 

Verse 2: “The Rubies That I Gave Up”

A blurred blue and purple background with portions of lyrics from Taylor Swift's song "Maroon," annotated to find hidden meanings and analyse her use of literary devices.
The second verse reads: "When the silence came

We were shaking, blind and hazy

How the hell did we lose sight of us again?

Sobbing with your head in your hands

Ain't that the way shit always ends?

You were standing hollow-eyed in the hallway

Carnations you had thought were roses, that's us

I feel you, no matter what

The rubies that I gave up"

The second verse describes their breakup, and it may not have been the first breakup. 

“When the silence came,” she says, “We were shaking, blind and hazy.” It’s as though they’ve awoken from a dream and entered a new painful reality. 

“How the hell did we lose sight of us again?” she asks. This is a clue: they’ve let this happen before. Like in coney island, they’ve made these mistakes over and over, never learning and never improving. 

“Sobbing with your head in your hands,” she says of her lover, “Ain’t that the way shit always ends?” This is how breakups always happen, with tears, denial, and sorrow. 

“You were standing hollow-eyed in the hallway,” she says, describing them looking tired and surrendered.

A hallway is a transitional space that leads from one room to another, and Taylor often uses them to describe a transitional emotional period (see champagne problems & coney island). 

“Carnations you had thought were roses, that’s us”  means that they thought they were beautiful and special, like roses. But in reality, they were cheap filler flowers: meaningless & worthless. 

“I feel you, no matter what,” she says, “The rubies that I gave up.” She still feels them after all this time. But what else does she feel? “The rubies that I gave up.” 

She lost something significant because of this person. Did she sacrifice something important to be with them? Like the ruby slippers in the Wizard of Oz, she’s describing something powerful that she had to leave behind. 

Taylor has used gems before to seemingly describe her Big Machine albums, as in my tears ricochet (“You wear the same jewels that I gave you / As you bury me”). Did she sacrifice something in her career to be with this person? 

Chorus: “And I Lost You”

“And I lost you

The one I was dancing with

In New York, no shoes”

-Taylor Swift, “Maroon”

The second chorus changes one line: “and I chose you” switches to “and I lost you.” Everything that comes after is what she lost: the one she was dancing with, the blush, the lips, et al.

At first, she chose this person, no matter the consequences. Through all the breakups, the “rust that grew between telephones,” the collarbone marks, she chose this romance, even if it was bad for her. 

But then she lost them. And even though it might be better to leave them behind, she still grapples with what it all meant. 

Bridge: “I Wake With Your Memory Over Me”

A blurred blue and purple background with portions of lyrics from Taylor Swift's song "Maroon," annotated to find hidden meanings and analyse her use of literary devices.
The bridge reads: 

"And I wake with your memory over me

That's a real fucking legacy, legacy (It was maroon)

And I wake with your memory over me

That's a real fucking legacy to leave"

“And I wake with your memory over me,” she says in the bridge, their ghost hovering above her bed. In that first hazy moment she wakes up, she momentarily forgets that she lost them. 

But then she remembers. “That’s a real fucking legacy,” she says. It’s either the most painful legacy because of how much the goodbye hurt, or it’s painful because she’ll never have anything as good as it ever again. 

But what’s the legacy? “It was maroon.” It’s as if her conscience chimes in, reminding her that though it felt really good at the time, it was bad for her. 

It wasn’t the bright, burning red of passion as her memory sometimes leads her to believe. “It was maroon” means that it was darker and more dangerous in hindsight. 

The legacy that this person leaves is traumatic, and it should have been a warning signal when she was with them. This person could have ended her. She got out just in time. 

🌌 Are you a Mastermind? Try my Midnights Lyrics Quiz! 🌌

Final Chorus & Outro: “It Was Maroon”

A blurred blue and purple background with portions of lyrics from Taylor Swift's song "Maroon," annotated to find hidden meanings and analyse her use of literary devices.
The final chorus and outro read: "The burgundy on my t-shirt

When you splashed your wine into me

And how the blood rushed into my cheeks

So scarlet, it was maroon

The mark they saw on my collarbone

The rust that grew between telephones

The lips I used to call home

So scarlet, it was maroon

It was maroon

It was maroon"

The final chorus goes through her memory one more time, replaying the wine stain, the blush, the hickey, the slow downfall, and their lips. It was all “maroon.” It was all bad, but it didn’t feel bad at the time. 

Hindsight is always 20/20, and now she sees that this was dark, painful, and dangerous. In the moment, it felt “burning red,” but now that she’s older and wiser, she sees it for what it really was. 

“It was maroon,” she repeats twice. Grown up Taylor can now see this romance clearly. The wine splash should have been a warning. Her blushed cheeks should have been a warning. It was a maroon blasting into the sky, bright and obvious. But she was in the haze, and didn’t see it.

The hickey, the slow breakdown of communication, their deceptive lips: it all should have been a red flag. But she didn’t see it, and had to go through this lesson in order to be able to spot a relationship like it in the future. 

If she ever sees maroon again instead of “golden” love, she’ll know it’s time to cut and run. 

Maroon Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts 

This is one of Taylor’s more complex narratives, but to summarize: it’s all about hindsight. When you’re stuck in the “lavender haze,” you can’t see things clearly. But once it’s all done and dusted, you put things into perspective. 

This was a deeply damaging, deeply traumatic romance, but it did teach her one important thing: what to avoid. Today, she’ll try to see through the haze to spot the obvious flares shooting into the sky.

If she can spot the maroon, she’ll know it’s time to get out, and get out fast. 

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