“This Love is Ours”…Right? Full Analysis of “Ours” Lyrics Meaning

Ours is a controversial Taylor Swift song from her Speak Now and Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) albums. The track describes a relationship that outsiders don’t understand or approve of, but sees Taylor and her boyfriend treasuring their bond anyway. 

Who is this song about, what is really Taylor saying about her life and relationships, and why do some people read this song as denial instead of defiance? 

Here’s my full English teacher analysis of Taylor’s Ours lyrics meaning, line by line. 

Purple & Lavender cover image for Swiftly Sung Stories' post explaining the meaning of Taylor Swift's "Ours". White title text displays the song title, with "Taylor's Version" below.

Ours (Taylor’s Version) by Taylor Swift

  • Title: Ours (Taylor’s Version) 
  • Track: 15, Speak Now (Taylor’s Version) 
  • Written By: Taylor Swift 
  • Secret Message: “Mayor” 
  • Lyrics via Genius 

Ours Narrative Summary

  • Setting: Inside a relationship that others don’t understand.  
  • Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (love interest, “you”) 
  • Theme: What love looks like from the outside vs. the inside of a relationship.  
  • Mood: Sweet, confident, defiant. 
  • Conflict: Outsiders don’t approve of their relationship. 
  • Inciting Incident: “Seems like there’s always someone who disapproves.” 
  • Quest: Soothe her partner’s – and her own – worries about relationship speculation. 
  • Metaphors & Deeper Meanings: “strangers’ silence,” “ take the stairs,” “vacant stares,” “my time is theirs,” “judge/verdict/jury,” “worry your pretty little mind,” “people throw rocks at things that shine,” “life makes love look hard,” “stakes are high, the water’s rough,” “ours,” “up their sleeves,” “ghosts,” “lip gloss smiles,” “hands are tough,” “where mine belong,” “riddles that you speak,” “your tattoos.” 
  • Imagery: “elevator buttons and morning air,” “vacant stares,” “pretty little mind,” “people throw rocks at things that shine,” “water’s rough,” “what people have up their sleeves,” “ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me,” “lurking in the shadows,” “lip gloss smiles,” “your hands are tough,” “gap between your teeth.” 
  • Lesson: There will always be someone judging you. It doesn’t mean you have to care. 

What is Ours About?

Ours narrates Taylor’s perspective of a relationship that people in her life don’t approve of. She insists that although others have an opinion about their love, their love belongs to them and no one else.

Who is Ours About?

Though Taylor has never publicly revealed who Ours may have been inspired by, most fans assume the lyrics are describing her relationship with John Mayer. Yes, the same John Mayer whom she blasts in Speak Now’s Dear John.

As we know how that relationship ended, it may color our interpretation of this track that seems to narrate happier times in their love story. But let’s dissect the lyrics and see what we can find out.

Ours Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's "Ours" lyrics. English teacher's red pen highlights uses of literary devices, translates tricky phrases, and points out connections to other Swift songs.
The first verse lyrics read: "Elevator buttons and morning air

Strangers' silence makes me want to take the stairs

If you were here, we'd laugh about their vacant stares

But right now, my time is theirs

Seems like there's always someone who disapproves

They'll judge it like they know about me and you

And the verdict comes from those with nothing else to do

The jury's out, but my choice is you"

The first verse sets up the scene. “Elevator buttons and morning air,” she says, placing us in an everyday office environment. In this world, Taylor is off to work in a 9-5 job. 

“Strangers’ silence makes me want to take the stairs,” she says, which will contrast sharply with what strangers will say later on in the track. She wants to “take the stairs” – metaphorically making life harder for herself – to avoid people and awkward exchanges. 

In this world, Taylor is just trying to avoid people, but – as we’ll come to learn – this track is also about her very different world of celebrity, where she’d want to avoid strangers for very different reasons. 

“If you were here, we’d laugh about their vacant stares,” she says, “But right now, my time is theirs.” She and her lover have some inside jokes, sharing a love of mocking the other 9-5 lemmings. Their inner world is deeper and more meaningful than that of the automatons in her office environment.

But for now, she’s stuck here, and stuck here without the person she loves and connects with. Just like in Superman, her love isn’t here: he’s in another world.

“Seems like there’s always someone who disapproves,” she says of the same strangers she has to ride the elevator with. “They’ll judge it like they know about me and you.” 

It’s here that the larger commentary on Taylor’s life and celebrity comes into play. We get the feeling she’s not just talking about office gossip; the entire world is judging their relationship, just as they judged her relationship with the much older Mayer. 

“And the verdict comes from those with nothing else to do,” she says of the bored public, speculating on their private romantic life. “The jury’s out,” she says of their questionable life choices, “but my choice is you.” 

The public is their ‘judge, jury, and executioner’, as the saying goes. Strangers think they have the right to have an opinion on her personal life, which likely alludes to the heavy media and social media commentary surrounding Taylor at this point in her life. 

When news broke that Taylor was dating the much older John Mayer – who was also known as kind of a playboy – speculation went wild, and a new round of slut-shaming began for Taylor. 

She’s hitting back at her critics here, and – as we learn in the Speak Now TV Prologue – she was on a mission to prove everyone wrong. 

💜 How well do you know Speak Now? Take the Speak Now TV Lyrics Quiz! 💜

Chorus: “People Throw Rocks At Things That Shine”

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's "Ours" lyrics. English teacher's red pen highlights uses of literary devices, translates tricky phrases, and points out connections to other Swift songs.
The first chorus lyrics read: "So don't you worry your pretty little mind

People throw rocks at things that shine

And life makes love look hard

The stakes are high, the water's rough

But this love is ours"

“So don’t you worry your pretty little mind,” she says either to her lover, or to the larger public. “People throw rocks at things that shine.” 

To worry your “pretty little mind” is usually used as an anti-feminist insult. Here, she’s comforting her partner on the surface, but covertly commenting on the shut-shaming itself.

‘Don’t you worry your teeny, tiny brains about my personal life,’ is what she’s really saying. But on the surface, it looks innocent enough to slip right past.

“And life makes love look hard,” she says. Yes, the everyday challenge of life can take a toll on a relationship. But Taylor’s everyday life – more than maybe anyone else’s on the planet – can make love seem very, very hard. 

“The stakes are high,” she says of both her relationship and her career, “the water’s rough / But this love is ours.” It won’t be smooth sailing, in either her romantic life or her professional life. But she does have something that is just hers: the inside of her romance, which no one else gets to see, no matter how much they try. 

Verse 2: “Ghosts From Your Past Gonna Jump Out at Me”

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's "Ours" lyrics. English teacher's red pen highlights uses of literary devices, translates tricky phrases, and points out connections to other Swift songs.
The second verse lyrics read: "You never know what people have up their sleeves

Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me

Lurking in the shadows with their lip gloss smiles

But I don't care, 'cause right now, you're mine

And you'll say

Don't you worry your pretty little mind

People throw rocks at things that shine…"

“You never know what people have up their sleeves,” she says of the same strangers who pass judgment on her, “Ghosts from your past gonna jump out at me.” The public, the media, and even her lovers’ ex-girlfriends, could pop up and haunt her at any time. 

They’re all “Lurking in the shadows with their lip gloss smiles,” the imagery of which contrasts sharply to their inherent “shine.”

A “lip gloss smile” is a fake shine, put on as a facade. But their shine – that people try to dismantle by “throwing rocks” – is genuine. 

“But I don’t care, ’cause right now, you’re mine,” she says, unfazed by any road block that might pop up. Is this defiance, or delusion?

“And you’ll say,” she says, narrating what her lover will tell her in the chorus, “don’t you worry your pretty little mind / People throw rocks at things that shine.” 

But this time around, he’s trying to convince her that the lip gloss girls are just jealous, trying to “throw rocks” because they shine so bright. He continues the same sentiment that she told him in the first chorus, but it all feels a bit like an empty promise. 

Bridge: “I Love The Riddles That You Speak”

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's "Ours" lyrics. English teacher's red pen highlights uses of literary devices, translates tricky phrases, and points out connections to other Swift songs.
The bridge lyrics read: "And it's not theirs to speculate if it's wrong and

Your hands are tough, but they are where mine belong and

I'll fight their doubt and give you faith with this song for you

'Cause I love the gap between your teeth

And I love the riddles that you speak

And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos

Will be ignored, 'cause my heart is yours"

The bridge dives into why this love is controversial. 

“And it’s not theirs to speculate if it’s wrong,” she says of the public’s opinion on this romance, “Your hands are tough, but they are where mine belong.” 

His hands being “tough” paint him as a manly man, who does a physically demanding job or is super masculine. But what she really means is, ‘people don’t think you’re good enough for me.’ He’s got rough edges, while she’s notoriously smooth and shiny (the good girl).

She’s using the common forbidden love/Romeo and Juliet trope (like in Love Story and But Daddy I Love Him): others don’t think they’re right for each other, but she ignores the naysayers. 

“I’ll fight their doubt and give you faith with this song for you,” she says in a meta moment. This song, she says, breaking the fourth wall, is the proof of her confidence in their connection. 

“’Cause I love the gap between your teeth,” she says of his imperfect smile, implying that he’s imperfect in other ways, too. 

“And I love the riddles that you speak,” she says of his confusing banter. This could allude to Mayer’s songwriting, but it also feels darker. He’s talking in circles, or gaslighting. She just doesn’t view it as such yet, but she will, in the vault track Foolish One.

“And any snide remarks from my father about your tattoos,” she says, once again referencing his “bad boy” image and forbidden love trope, “Will be ignored, ’cause my heart is yours.” 

Final Chorus: “They Can’t Take What’s Ours”

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's "Ours" lyrics. English teacher's red pen highlights uses of literary devices, translates tricky phrases, and points out connections to other Swift songs.
The final chorus lyrics read: "So don't you worry your pretty little mind

People throw rocks at things that shine

And life makes love look hard

Don't you worry your pretty little mind

People throw rocks at things that shine

But they can't take what's ours

They can't take what's ours

The stakes are high, the water's rough

But this love is ours"

The final chorus circles around the same ideas again: ‘don’t worry, people aim vitriol at us because we’re just very large and shiny targets,’ and ‘the hard parts will pass eventually’. 

“But they can’t take what’s ours,” she says to him. This love is theirs, and only theirs, and even if others talk about it, they don’t know what it’s like on the inside. 

What’s ironic, however, is that (if this song is truly about Mayer, as it seems to be) it was never hers or theirs to begin with. In Superman, he never comes back down to be with her. In Foolish One, he never even admits his feelings for her. And in Dear John, we find out it was all gaslighting and manipulation.

So is Ours really about denial, or delusion? It’s up to you to decide.

💜 How well do you know Speak Now? Take the Speak Now TV Lyrics Quiz! 💜

Ours Song Meaning: Final Thoughts

The secret message for this song in the original album was “Mayor”. It’s a cheeky finger pointed at John Mayer, but it also hints at ownership, and ruling their own domain of love. They govern their kingdom of romance, and no one else gets a vote.

But as it turns out, all the “riddles” that this “Mayor” speaks were, in fact, gaslighting. The warnings from others were heartfelt, and for good reason. This relationship did not – as she says here – look better from the inside than it did from the outside. 

If any song should have ended up on Taylor’s future “denial” playlist, it’s this one. She’s very good at talking herself out of being worried, and here, a teenager is trying to convince a grown man that it will all be okay. 

It will not be okay, but that’s a hard lesson Taylor had to learn on her own. She should never have needed to learn this lesson in the first place, and everything would’ve, could’ve, should’ve gone very differently.

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