“Are We in the Clear Yet?” Complete Out of the Woods Song Meaning
Out of the Woods is one of the most heartbreaking songs on 1989. It’s a rushing, frantic scramble to see if the worst is over. But it’s never over.
What does it really mean to be “out of the woods” for Taylor at this point in time? How does the central metaphor connect to the rest of the lyrics?
Here’s my complete analysis of Taylor’s Out of the Woods song meaning, line by line.

Out of the Woods (Taylor’s Version)
- Title: Out of the Woods (Taylor’s Version)
- Written by: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff
- Track: 4, 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
- Pen: Fountain
- Lyrics from Genius
Out of the Woods Lyrics: Narrative Synopsis
- Setting: Taylor’s memory, looking back on a past relationship.
- Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (“you,” former love interest)
- Mood: Nostalgic pain and heartbreak.
- Conflict: Obstacles in their way that they can’t seem to navigate around.
- Inciting Incident: Reflecting back on what went wrong.
- Quest: Rehash this memory, possibly to find some closure.
- Symbols & Metaphors: “out of the woods,” polaroid photo, color vs. black and white, night vs. day, necklace, paper airplanes, brakes, heat, monsters.
- Theme: Losing love and not knowing why.
- Imagery: “we were in screaming color,” “built to fall apart and fall back together,” “move the furniture so we could dance,” “to paper airplanes flying,” “monsters turned out to be just trees,” “when the sun came up you were lookin’ at me”
- Lesson: Some relationships may never be “in the clear”, and there will always be more “woods” to wander through.
What is Out of the Woods About?
Out of the Woods is about two characters who are constantly on the brink of breaking up. The central metaphor of “out of the woods” means that the danger has passed, and you can continue on confidently.
This never happens for their relationship; there’s always a new obstacle in the way.
Who is Out of the Woods About?
Out of the Woods is rumored to be about Harry Styles, both due to the timing of the song release and for the references to a vehicle crash and a necklace in the lyrics.
Harry and Taylor were involved in a snowmobile accident when they were dating, and wore matching necklaces.
But moreover, as Taylor told us in the 1989 prologue, Out of the Woods is about a lesson she learned: “We are never out of the woods, because we are always going to be fighting for something.”
Out of the Woods Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line

Verse one opens with Taylor looking back in time at an intimate moment. “Looking at it now,” she says, “it all seems so simple.” But as it turns out, this moment was anything but simple.
They’re “lying on your couch,” and the subject of the song takes “a Polaroid of us.” What’s a Polaroid? An instant memory that takes time to develop.
Polaroids have come up again and again in Taylor’s discography, but haven’t yet at this point in time. The next mention will be in New Years Day from reputation. But Taylor did use Polaroids in her Red vault track The Very First Night, which could mean that this specific polaroid metaphor is directed at the same romance of that track.
After looking at the photo taken of them, they discovered “the rest of the world was black and white, but we were in screaming color.” The rest of the world makes sense: it’s all black and white.
But our protagonist and her lover aren’t in the grey middle, they’re popping off the page “in screaming color”. This is likely referencing Taylor’s colors of love, which she first established in Red, and will continue to use throughout the rest of her discography.
They’re not boring, they’re passionate. This love is memorable.
🩵🩵 Can you pass the 1989 TV Lyrics Quiz? 🩵🩵
Chorus: “Are We in the Clear Yet?”

“Are we out of the woods yet?” she frantically repeats in the chorus. This pestering thought races through her mind with the rushed repetition of the chorus.
What does it mean to be “out of the woods”? It means a time when the danger has passed; when the worst is over.
“Are we in the clear yet?” she wonders. Looking back at this moment, the Polaroid seemed simple. But it wasn’t at all: it represented the danger that was still imminent.
To be “in the clear” is basically the same as “out of the woods.” But what’s interesting to me is the juxtaposition of “screaming color” vs. “clear.” Translucent vs. vibrant tones.
This is another clue that the “screaming color” of them in the Polaroid, with the black and white background, is a harbinger.
It forces her to recall this moment in their past that seemed simple, but was really a symptom that something was deeply wrong. It foreshadowed all that was to come, but she couldn’t see it yet.
Verse 2: “Your Necklace Hanging From My Neck”

Verse two looks back at another moment, but it’s unclear if the memory is moving forward or backward in time.
“Last December,” she says, “we were built to fall apart and fall back together.”
December is significant for its use in Back to December, where it represents a moment she wishes she could change. In that song from earlier record Speak Now, December was when it all fell apart.
In this case, they were “built to fall apart and fall back together (back together).” They would break up and make up, lather, rinse, repeat. They were stuck – “built” for this to happen.
“Your necklace hanging from my neck” is an important symbol: it means ownership or close to the heart. She was wearing the necklace on the night they “couldn’t quite forget.” This usually means when you can’t quit something.
That unforgettable night was when “we decided to move the furniture so we could dance.” This could be literal dancing, figurative dancing ‘between the sheets,’ or dancing as a metaphor for love and relationships (as she uses in Dancing With Our Hands Tied and many others).
As they can’t ‘quit’ repeating this night (“couldn’t quite forget”), it feels like something catastrophically wonderful, or catastrophically traumatic happened on this night.
“Baby, like we stood a chance” could mean they didn’t stand a chance against their attraction to one another. It was like gravity. Alternatively, it could mean they didn’t stand a chance to stay together; there were too many obstacles.
They were like “two paper airplanes flying”, soaring where the wind took them. But what else are paper airplanes? Flimsy, hastily built, susceptible to getting crumpled up into a ball on the floor easily.
It’s worth noting that when Harry Styles and Taylor were together, they were known to wear matching paper airplane necklaces. What could that have meant? It’s unclear, but paper airplanes usually represent being carefree.
This thought of the paper airplanes and the moving furniture to “dance” sends her into another spiral of worry, frantically repeating the chorus.
“Are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods yet?”
Bridge: “Remember When You Hit the Brakes too Soon?”

The bridge gives us one more moment that Taylor has plucked from this relationship to look back on. They’re driving (some kind of vehicle, allegedly a snowmobile but it doesn’t really matter) and he “hit the brakes too soon.”
If the drive is their relationship, then his application of the brakes is a breakup “too soon,” or maybe very suddenly.
“Twenty stitches in the hospital room” is the consequence of the crash. Is this real or a metaphor? It’s unclear, but the drive and the brakes caused a serious accident.
At the hospital he starts to cry and she follows suit; it’s an emotional moment.
Then she plucks another moment: “Remember when you couldn’t take the heat?” The pressure was building and it became too much.
“I walked out, I said ‘I’m settin’ you free”, she recalls. Did she leave before she could get left?
“The Monsters Turned Out to Be Just Trees”

“But the monsters turned out to be just trees” means that in the “woods,” there was nothing real to torment them. If something turns out to be ‘just a tree’ it means what once looked frightening is just an optical illusion.
Whatever it was that broke them up – or nearly broke them up – wasn’t real. It was all in their heads. It was all an optical, or emotional, illusion.
“But when the sun came up, you were lookin at me,” she says. The sun rising means starting fresh or starting over; the dawn of a new day. It also brings light to the darkness, which illuminates the woods – or the road – so you can see more clearly.
But even after the sun rises, the vibe is ominous. “Are we out of the woods yet?” she keeps asking herself.
“I remember,” she tells herself. This all really happened. It wasn’t an illusion.
“Are we in the clear yet? Good,” she reassures herself. We’re “in the clear,” for now. But we don’t get the sense that it’s really ‘all good.’
Final Chorus & Outro: “Say, Are We?”

The final chorus, however, means everything is not good. She’s still frantically asking herself if everything will be okay,
She keeps asking “are we out of the woods yet? Are we out of the woods?” and gets the reply – either from herself or from him “are we in the clear yet? Good.”
It keeps going back and forth, worrying that there are more monsters coming, being assured there aren’t, then looping around and around like a broken record.
So what’s the message? They were standing on shaky ground, or a treacherous slope. Nothing was as it seemed, and as soon as it seemed safe to keep going, another worry popped up.
This is what it feels like to break up and get back together repeatedly. You think it’ll work this time. It doesn’t. Next time? It’ll work. Then it doesn’t.
More woods, more monsters, and more heartbreak ensue.
🩵🩵 Can you pass the 1989 TV Lyrics Quiz? 🩵🩵
Out of the Woods Song Meaning: Final Thoughts
This song’s brilliant use of metaphor and repetition give the listener the exact feeling she’s trying to portray: anxiety, then hope, then anxiety again.
It’s a looping trip back through time to hand-plucked moments that demonstrate how turbulent this time was. The highs were so high; the lows were so low.
They never, in fact, get out of the woods. They either get lost in the woods or find their way out, one by one. But together, there are only monsters there waiting for them.
More Songs From 1989 (Taylor’s Version)
1989 Prologues: Original vs. Taylor’s Version
- Welcome to New York
- Blank Space
- Style
- All You Had to Do Was Stay
- Shake it Off
- I Wish You Would
- 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]