Harnessing Karma: Full Analysis of the “my tears ricochet” Meaning
Taylor has given us a lot of devastating track 5’s in her career, but my tears ricochet might be the most vulnerable of the bunch.
In the lyrics, Taylor pours over a past heartbreak, how it nearly buried her, and the reverberations that echo through both their lives, even long after it’s over.
But what is this track really about, and what do the complex lyrics mean?
Here’s my complete breakdown of Taylor’s my tears ricochet meaning, line by line.

my tears ricochet by Taylor Swift
- Title: My Tears Ricochet
- Written by: Taylor Swift
- Track: 5, Folklore
- Pen: Quill
- Lyrics from Genius
my tears ricochet Narrative Summary
- Setting: A funeral.
- Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (the bad guy, “you”).
- Mood: Vindictive and karmic.
- Conflict: The subject did something to deeply damage both of them.
- Inciting Incident: All the hell you gave me.” What he put her through.
- Quest: Show this person how karma comes back around.
- Symbols & Metaphors: “my tears ricochet,” fire/ashes, buried/dying, “go with grace,” “dead to you,” “the wake,” stones/jewels, haunting/ghosts, “home,” “stolen lullabies,” “my name,” “battleships” & “waves.”
- Theme: Karma.
- Imagery: “weepin’ in a sunlit room,” “if I’m on fire, you’ll be made of ashes, too,” “you’re the hero flying around, saving face,” “ if I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake?,” “Look at how my tears ricochet,” “[stones] to throw, some to make a diamond ring,” “what a ghostly scene”, “You wear the same jewels that I gave you / As you bury me”, “aim for my heart, go for blood,” “screaming at the sky,” “stolen lullabies,” “battleships will sink beneath the waves,” “drunk on this pain.”
- Lesson: Everything has consequences.
What is my tears ricochet About?
my tears ricochet is surmised to be about Taylor’s battle for her masters, coined by Swifties as “the masters heist.”
In 2019, Big Machine Records (owned by Scott Borchetta, her former manager) was sold to Ithaca Holdings (Scooter Braun). Taylor’s masters were part of the sale.
Swift was not given the opportunity to buy her catalog, which was devastating. This set in motion her re-records of her past albums so she could “own” her music again.
Regarding the my tears ricochet meaning, Taylor said:
“It’s kind of a song about karma. It’s a song about greed. About how somebody could be your best friend, your companion, your most trusted person in your life and then they could go and become your worst enemy, who knows how to hurt you because they were once your most trusted person.”
-Taylor Swift, Folklore Long Pond Studio Sessions
Who is my tears ricochet About?
It’s likely directed at and inspired by Scott Borchetta, the former CEO of Taylor’s first record label, Big Machine. At least that’s what the fans think.
In the folklore prologue, Taylor said it’s about “an embittered tormentor showing up at the funeral of his fallen object of affection,” which could also be interpreted as the battle for her masters with Scott Borchetta.
my tears ricochet Lyrics Explained: Line by Line

The intro and first verse sounds choral and angelic, which sets the scene for the first imagery.
“We gather here, we line up, weepin in a sunlit room,” she says, evoking a funeral scene.
“And if I’m on fire,” she says, “you’ll be made of ashes, too.” This describes the central theme and concept of karma: what goes around comes around.
But it’s important to note that she doesn’t say “If I’m dead, you’ll be dead too.”
She says “If I’m on fire,” which can mean either she’s colloquially “on fire” (on a roll, top of her game, which is accurate), or on fire as in she’s burning down.
“You’ll be made of ashes too” is a stark contrast to being on fire. Being on fire is bright and hot.
Being made of ashes is being made of dust: a microscopic nothing. This is a really interesting and lyrical way of saying she will burn him to the ground. She will keep burning, and stay a powerful being, but he will be made of ash.
“Even on my worst day, did I deserve babe, all the hell you gave me?” she asks him. She may have done questionable or harmful things in the past, but it never called for retaliation of this magnitude. Did it?
“Cause I loved you, I swear I loved you,” is actually a clue that this isn’t about a love interest.
If this were a breakup song, she wouldn’t have to “swear” to her love; she would simply say it and mean it. In this case, it’s love where love is not required: possibly a business relationship.
Is it about the former-CEO we all suspect it is about?
She won’t love him “‘til my dying day.” She’ll “swear I loved you ‘til my dying day.” She doesn’t love him anymore, but she did. And that’s what makes this betrayal all the more painful.
But her “dying day” has come. They’re at a funeral, she (or her name, her albums) is in the metaphoric casket, and now that she’s dead, she will not swear she loved him anymore.
She’s done having any affection for him whatsoever.
Chorus: “If I’m Dead to You, Why Are You At the Wake?”

“I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace,” she says, evoking death and dying once again like the funeral imagery of the first verse.
To “go with grace” is to either die peacefully, or to show yourself out without a fuss. Taylor wants neither of these things: she can’t stand the thought of either one.
But it also is evocative of Dylan Thomas’ iconic poem “Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night”, where he says: “Do not go gentle into that good night…Rage, rage against the dying of the light.”
To “go with grace” is the same as to “go gentle into that good night.” Thomas’ poem surrounds the surrender of death, which Taylor is not about to do. She’ll rage against her tormentor instead.
“And you’re the hero flying around, saving face,” she says to him. This evokes the subject’s narcissism. He only cares about his image and reputation. But once the truth comes out, it will be over for him.
“And if I’m dead to you, why are you at the wake?” she asks. Why is he here – still talking about her, still in her orbit – if she doesn’t mean anything to him?
Notice it’s “dead to you,” not “dead.” So what’s the “wake”?
We can suppose that it’s the metaphorical funeral for her former life at Big Machine – all the hits made there, all the gold, diamond and platinum records. Now that her history and legacy has been stolen, it’s time to bury her past – to burn it down – and rise up from the ashes.
He’s “cursing my name, wishing I stayed,” meaning he’s blaming her for leaving. But she’s also “dead” to him, so where is the disconnect?
This could be referring to her leaving the label in 2018. We don’t know the full reasoning behind her leaving Big Machine, but it’s telling that as soon as she left, he sold her masters. It seemed like trouble was brewing, and she got out. He wishes she hadn’t.
“Look at how my tears ricochet” is boomerang imagery: look at how it comes back around, and will hit you in the face. Look at how the dominoes fall. Look at how karma is coming for you.
Because of her sadness – her tears, both over this situation and her emotions that fuel her songwriting (and all the money they’ve made everyone) – it will come back around to bite him.
🩶 Can you pass my tricky folklore Lyrics Quiz? 🩶
Verse 2: “You Know I Didn’t Have to Haunt You / But What a Ghostly Scene”

“We gather stones, never knowing what they’ll mean” is a loaded metaphor. I immediately think of three things:
- Pushing a rock up the hill. Doing something that’s impossible and never-ending, like Sisyphus.
- Skipping stones: the ripple effect.
- Stones turn into diamonds with pressure and time.
She expands: “Some to throw, some to make a diamond ring.” This rock metaphor evokes the old karmic proverb “people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones”, which means you shouldn’t expect perfection if you’re not perfect yourself.
The diamond ring is interesting too, as it could hint at the “gems”: the six albums he owned (also the albums having gem or metal certifications: gold, diamond, platinum, etc.). Yet it’s also evoking the first geology imagery, too: rocks turn to diamonds with pressure and time.
“You know I didn’t want to have to haunt you, but what a ghostly scene,” is hugely atmospheric, and in this case ‘haunting you’ reminds us of the common phrase ‘it’ll come back to haunt you.’ Is she purposefully “haunting” him with her re-records?
“You wear the same jewels that I gave you as you bury me,” again invokes gems. Are the “gems” (stones, diamonds, jewels) her first 6 studio albums?
It could also mean that he wears the ‘fruits of her labor’ so to speak – actual jewels – bought by the enormous amount of money she made for him – while he nonchalantly buries her in the ground by selling her work out from under her.
Chorus: “When I’d Fight You Used to Tell Me I Was Brave”

The second chorus has one different line: “Cause when I’d fight you used to tell me I was brave.”
This is so full of irony: now she’s fighting him. Before when she would fight, he would cheer her on.
Now what does he do? He’s “flying around saving face” and trying to “bury” her.
“Look at how my tears ricochet,” she says again.
One important note on the central metaphor: Taylor doesn’t use the word “tears” often. In fact, in her entire discography up until this point in 2020, she’s only used it twice: most memorably in Teardrops on My Guitar (from her debut album).
Are these tears that ricochet the ‘teardrops on her guitar’? It was her second single ever, and emblematic of her songwriting and her career as a whole.
I think it’s highly likely she’s making this reference intentionally.
Bridge: “When You Can’t Sleep At Night (You Hear My Stolen Lullabies)”

“And I can go anywhere I want,” she says forcefully in the bridge, “anywhere I want, just not home.”
She’s now one of the most powerful people in the world. She can do anything she pleases, and go anywhere she pleases. But she can’t go “home.”
“Home” in this case may be Big Machine, or Scott Borchetta, or her first 6 albums: back to where it all began.
It could also mean going back to her roots: a Nashville country star, and a naive 15 year old who signed a massive deal that would change her life. That deal is what made her music property of Big Machine.
“Home” also evokes the larger familial context: how she thought of Scott as family, and he turned around and stabbed her in the back.
“And you can aim for my heart, go for blood,” she says to him, “but you would still miss me in your bones.” He can try to inflict all the pain he wants, but it will hurt him, too.
He won’t just miss her, he’ll miss her ”in his bones” – the deepest part of himself that knows – beyond the superficial stuff – that what he did was wrong. Bones also evokes a skeletal image: burying him, or burning him to the ground.
“And I still talk to you (when I’m screaming at the sky),” is so powerful. She is still so traumatized by this, she still talks to this little man who is so insignificant now.
She’s telling us that this was a huge moment in her life, so much so that she still talks to him/to herself in moments of rage and frustration.
“And when you can’t sleep at night (you hear my stolen lullabies)” is the most haunting metaphor that closes out the bridge.
“Stolen lullabies” likely represent her re-records. She’s taken them back, or “stolen” them back. Lullabies are supposed to sing you to sleep, but for him, they keep him up.
Chorus: “You Had to Kill Me, But it Killed You Just the Same”

“I didn’t have it in myself to go with grace,” she repeats. “And so the battleships will sink beneath the waves.” She’s no longer at war. She’s letting the battle fleet slowly sink beneath the “waves” of turmoil.
“You had to kill me, but it killed you just the same” is a metaphor for the entire fiasco: he sold her albums (‘killed her’), but it killed him too (killed his business). But it’s hinting that maybe it hurt him emotionally, though we’ll never know that for sure unless he speaks out.
“Cursing my name, wishing I stayed, you turned into your worst fears” reminds us how well she knew this person. She knew his worst fears, and he knew hers. That’s how he managed to hurt her so deeply, and how she knows that he has committed the worst karmic sin that will come back around to ‘kill him.’
“And you’re tossing out blame, drunk on this pain, crossing out the good years,” could mean he lashed out after the re-records (entirely possible), and “crossing out the good years” means he’s discounting all the good times – and incredible music – they made together.
This is ironically funny because those original albums are now metaphorically ‘crossed out’; null and void. They don’t matter anymore, at least to her fans, and they’re pretty much worthless in the industry.
“Look at how my tears ricochet” is said one final time at the end of this masterpiece, calling it back to karma once again.
It’s also evocative of Look What You Made Me Do. See what happened? You fucked around, and you found out.
Her tears ricocheted like a bullet, deflected by her armor – her talent – and flung back around to pierce his heart.
🩶 Can you pass my tricky folklore Lyrics Quiz? 🩶
My Tears Ricochet Analysis: Final Thoughts
This track is incredibly angry, but also deeply sad.
I love how Taylor has encapsulated this whole drama in this hauntingly gorgeous song that takes us through all the feelings she went through – the good and the bad – and brings it back around.
Look at how it all turned out; look at how her tears ricocheted, and we are where we are today: with Taylor as the most powerful person in the industry, leaving the sad little man far behind, totally insignificant. All of his own doing.
Someone threw a rock, but he was living in a house of glass.
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