Love is a Ruthless Game: “State of Grace” Song Meaning

State of Grace (Taylor’s Version) opens the Red album with a new beginning. In the lyrics, Taylor is entering into a fresh romance, but not without hesitation and reflection. 

This song plays with the themes of innocence vs. sin, taking chances, the beginning stages of love, accepting someone for who they are, and the concept of fate. 

Let’s go through my complete analysis of the State of Grace song meaning, and see what we can learn about the themes that are to come on the incredible Red album. 

State of Grace Taylor’s Version

• Title: State of Grace (Taylor’s Version)
• Track: 1, Red (Taylor’s Version) 
• Written By: Taylor Swift 
• Pen: Fountain
• Secret Message: “I love you doesn’t count after goodbye”
• Lyrics via Genius 

State of Grace Lyrics Meaning: Narrative Analysis

• Setting: Busy city in a fresh start
• Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject: her “achilles heel” (“you”, new love)
• Mood: Surprised & delighted but wary 
• Conflict: The risk of love 
• Inciting Incident: “Never saw [him] coming”, but he miraculously appeared 
• Quest: See if this love will work out, despite obstacles.
• Symbols & Metaphors: “armor falls,” “cannonball”, clean slates, “State of grace,” “achilles heel”, “golden age”, “mosaic broken hearts”, “hands of fate”
• Theme: Playing the “game” of love, once again.
• Imagery: “Pierce the room like a cannonball”, “twin fire signs, four blue eyes,” “I loved in shades of wrong.” 

State of Grace Lyric Video

What Was the Hidden Message for State of Grace? 

The secret message in the original liner notes for Red was “I love you doesn’t count after goodbye.”

This hints that the miraculous, surprising love that she found in the song did not – in fact – “play good and right” in the game of love. 

Who is State of Grace About? 

Fans theorize that the song is about Jake Gyllenhall, whom Taylor dated at the time of writing and recording Red. 

There are a few important easter eggs that hint at Jake: “Twin fire signs” (Jake’s sign is Sagittarius like Taylor’s), and “four blue eyes” (they both have blue eyes). 

What is State of Grace About? 

State of Grace is about the “religious experience” of falling in love, when the slate is clean and the future is uncertain. 

Taylor has said that this song is important for understanding the themes of the rest of the album. 

“There’s a line in the song that says ‘Love is a ruthless game, unless you play it good and right’. That’s kind of like a warning, for the rest of the record,” she said.

It’s a warning to heed, as we’ll see a ton of consequences play out in the rest of the album.

State of Grace Song Meaning: Line by Line

Verse one sees Taylor walking through a bustling city, likely New York City, where she moved during her Fearless era. 

Big cities symbolize “making it” and growing up for Taylor, as in Never Grow Up and Mean. She’s older, starting fresh, and ready to take on the world. But it’s uncertain.

“All we know is touch and go” paints a precarious picture: nothing is certain, and she doesn’t know what the future holds. “Touch and go” is a figure of speech meaning that something starts and stops, or is unpredictable. 

“We are alone with our changing minds” describes the solitude and confusion at this point in her life. If you’re “alone with your changing mind,” you’re looping through endless possibilities, never knowing if you’re doing the right thing. 

“We fall in love ’til it hurts or bleeds or fades in time” is a great use of congeries – creating a list. This list is the ways that you can lose love, or fall out of love. 

She’s listing all the things that have gone wrong before, as a way to remind her what can happen if she doesn’t “play good and right,” as we’ll find out in the chorus and following verse.

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Verse 2: “Twin Fire Signs, Four Blue Eyes”

The chorus describes her surprise at the appearance of the subject of the song: she “never saw [him] comin’.” To never see something coming is to be taken by surprise (sometimes good, and sometimes bad). 

Why is the sudden appearance significant? She wasn’t looking for him. He appeared one day out of the blue, and all of a sudden everything is different.

After he appears, she’ll “never be the same.” Is it a good surprise, or a bad one? We won’t know until later on in the song, but this foreshadows that big change is afoot. 

She draws comparisons to battles with his appearance into her life: he immediately pierces her armor. Her inhibitions – her gut feelings, her hesitancies – fall away. They’re intimate immediately, like love at first sight.

But this is also dangerous- she’s now unprotected, without her armor.

In this new love, the “slates are clean,” meaning they get to start over and start fresh, as if their pasts never happened. What colors will they paint on this fresh slate with? Will it be the “shades of wrong” from her past? Reds? Greys? Blues?

“Twin fire signs” likely references astrological signs, and “four blue eyes” are her blue eyes plus his (these give us little hints toward the song being about Jake Gyllenhaal).

Blue also represents depression and longing, which is a small harbinger of things to come from these particular eyes.

Pre-Chorus: “Mosaic Broken Hearts”

“So you were never a saint” is a metaphor that means he hasn’t been angelic all his life – he’s done bad things. But for now, his slate is clean with her and she accepts it. 

“I loved in shades of wrong” not only paints beautiful imagery, but uses metaphor to describe her “colors” of love. The album being entitled Red, this is a hint at what that title means.

“Shades of wrong” means that she’s made huge mistakes in love, but now that she’s with him, she has a fresh palette to paint with. 

“Mosaic broken hearts” is both gorgeous imagery and a potent metaphor: their hearts are in pieces, shattered into a mosaic that makes them who they are and where they’ve been. 

“This love is brave and wild,” but is it brave enough to go through the pain and heartbreak again, with this man who “was never a saint”? Is is wild enough to take the chance, and potentially be shattered into a mosaic in “shades of wrong” once again? 

Bridge: “Unless You Play it Good And Right”

“This is a state of grace” could be a theological reference, meaning that she’s free from sin. In this new relationship, her slate has been wiped clean and she’s been given a new chance to start over. 

But “state of grace” could also mean that she has learned to give herself grace – to accept that she’s human, makes mistakes, and will continue to make mistakes.

“This is the worthwhile fight” refers to love itself: it’s worthwhile to chance it, even if you might get your heart broken. 

“Love is a ruthless game” compares love to a brutal match that pulls no punches – it will absolutely flatten you, “unless you play it good and right.” 

This is an important line in the bridge, and Taylor has said that it’s the key to understanding the theme of the rest of the album. 

But it also foreshadows what’s to come: will he “play it good and right” with her? 

“These are the hands of fate” refers to the “ruthless game” – it’s like playing spin the bottle. Where it lands, nobody knows. 

“You’re my achilles heel” is a Greek Mythology reference. Achilles was a warrior, who was impenetrable in all places except the back of his heel: his one vulnerable spot. He’s taken down by it, and “Achilles heel” has become a metaphor for weakness and vulnerability. 

If he’s her Achilles heel, he’s her one weakness. This also foreshadows what’s to come on the rest of the album. 

“This is the golden age” refers both to the point in time that she’s at in her life, and the point in the relationship she’s at with him. It’s the beginning, where everything seems to be going great.

She’s in the “lavender haze” of new love. 

Outro: “I Loved in Shades of Wrong”

The final chorus and outro repeat her most important messages to us over again: she’ll “never be the same,” and “love is a ruthless game, unless you play it good and right”. 

She’s not played it “good and right” before, and therefore her “mosaic broken heart” was in “shades of wrong.”

If you want to paint the prettiest picture (or mosaic), you need to find the proper colors (emotions) to begin with.

She’s entering the game, ready to paint/play again, and no one – not even Taylor – knows if she’ll come out victorious. 

State of Grace Lyrics Meaning: Final Thoughts

This track one sets an important tone for the album, and establishes metaphors and imagery that will weave throughout the Red tracklist:

1. Colors: Colors as emotions. will her “shades of wrong” finally come out right?
2. Religious references: she’s leaning away from direct religious references and going more toward generic terms like “holy” and “state of grace.” Is this her slow shedding of her country image once and for all?
3. Love as a game: can she play it “good and right”? Can her partner “play it good and right”?

These themes will all show up in different forms on the rest of the album, and it’s interesting to see how she uses them in her songwriting as she grows and evolves.

If we circle back to the hidden message for State of Grace (“I love you doesn’t count after goodbye”), we can see that all is not well, and this might not be a “state of grace” after all – it might be ground zero.

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More From Red (Taylor’s Version) 

• Red Prologues: Original vs. Taylor’s Version
• State of Grace
• Red
• I Knew You Were Trouble
• All Too Well [10 Minute Version]
• 22
• I Almost Do
• We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together
• Stay Stay Stay
• The Last Time
• Holy Ground
• Sad Beautiful Tragic
• The Lucky One
• Everything Has Changed
• Starlight
• Begin Again
• The Moment I Knew
• Come Back…Be Here
• Girl at Home
• Better Man [From the Vault] 
• Nothing New [From the Vault] 
• Babe [From the Vault] 
• Message in a Bottle [From the Vault] 
• I Bet You Think About Me [From the Vault] 
• Forever Winter [From the Vault] 
• Run [From the Vault] 
• The Very First Night [From the Vault]