Running Toward Love: Taylor's "Run" Meaning, Explained

Taylor Swift & Ed Sheeran’s Run describes our narrators running toward love, and running away from their daily struggles.

What’s really going on in this escapist narrative, why do they need to run away, and how does this song predict the future themes of 1989?

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

Cover image for Swiftly Sung Stories' lyrical analysis of Taylor Swift's "Run" ft. Ed Sheeran (Taylor's Version) [From the Vault]. Red stylized title text pops over a background of aged books.

Run ft. Ed Sheeran (Taylor’ Version) [From the Vault] by Taylor Swift

Title: Run ft. Ed Sheeran (Taylor’s Version)[From the Vault]
Track: 28, Red (Taylor’s Version)
Written By: Ed Sheeran & Taylor Swift
Pen: Fountain
Lyrics via Genius

Run Narrative Summary

Setting: Imagining a future with a lover.
Characters: Narrators (Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran)
Theme: Romantic escapism.
Mood: Hopeful, nostalgic, a bit worried.
Conflict: People in their lives don’t approve of their relationship, or don’t understand their love. They imagine running away where it can be just the two of them.
Inciting Incident: “I’d drive away before I let you go”: something threatens to break them up.
Quest: Remember what drew them together in the first place, and imagine what could be if they were wild and free together.
Similes, Metaphors & Deeper Meanings: “run,” driving metaphors (“keys”, “car,” ”drive away”) “so-called friends”, “chain round your throat,” “piece of paper,” “picture in a frame,” “like you’d run from the law,” “where our eyes can take us,” “laugh like a child,” “sing like no one cares,” “no one to be,” “this view,” “blue sky,” “note from the locket,” “keep it in your pocket,” “heart on your sleeve,” “hold it for you,” “like they’re trying to chase us,” “hole in my heart,” “shot in the dark,” “tear us apart.”

What is Run About?

Run describes a pair of lovers who imagine running away from their everyday lives to be together. There’s something about their relationship that others don’t approve of, and they imagine that running away and starting fresh would allow them the freedom to be together.

Who is Run About?

Taylor has never revealed who Run may have been inspired by.

The song describes a love that others disapprove of, which is also a theme in other Red tracks including I Bet You Think About Me, The Moment I Knew, and All Too Well.

It also describes a newer love that’s full of possibility, as similarly described in Come Back…Be Here, Message in a Bottle, and Treacherous. It’s possible that Run had the same muse as these otherRed tracks.

Run Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's "Run" lyrics. Red English teacher's pen highlights hidden meanings, translates tricky lyrics, points out literary and poetic devices, and explains the overall meaning of the song.
The first verse lyrics read: "Give me the keys, I'll bring the car back around

We shouldn't be in this town

And my so-called friends, they don't know

I'd drive away before I let you go

So give me a reason and don't say no, no"

“Give me the keys, I’ll bring the car back around,” Taylor opens the first verse. The “keys” are physical car keys, but also a metaphorical key to her heart, or keys to his heart.

She’ll bring the “car” – their vehicle of escape and escapism – “back around” to reverse course. Wherever they are is not where they want to be, and we’ll soon find out why.

“We shouldn’t be in this town,” she says, speaking of a metaphorical place where their love is not understood or approved of.

“And my so-called friends, they don’t know,” she says of her disapproving friends, “I’d drive away before I let you go.” She’d throw it all away – drive away from her entire life – rather than break up with this person.

Where else have we seen key and driving metaphors in Red? In All Too Well, the 10-minute version. This could be a clue that it is the same central romance, but we don’t know for sure.

“So give me a reason and don’t say no, no,” she says, looking for any reason to run away. “Don’t say no” means ‘don’t say you won’t run away with me. I need you to run away with me, away from the haters.’

Pre-Chorus 1: “There’s a Chain ‘Round Your Throat”

“There’s a chain ’round your throat,” Taylor says in the first pre-chorus. He’s either wearing a necklace she gave him, or wearing a metaphorical “chain” that tethers him to his current situation.

There’s “a piece of paper where I wrote, ‘I’ll wait for you’,” she says, promising that – if he can break free – she’ll be waiting.

“There’s a key on the chain,” she says, implying that the “keys” to his freedom have been with him all along. Is it the key to her heart, that can unlock a grand new love full of possibilities?

“There’s a picture in a frame,” she says, describing either a picture inside a locket (attached to a chain), or a photo in a frame that reminds him of their love.

“Take it with you,” she says, which essentially means ‘don’t forget how special we are,’ and ‘take me with you when you go.’

Chorus: “Run Like You’d Run From the Law”

“And run like you’d run from the law,” she says in the first chorus. Taylor has many romantic escapist narratives, but this is the first time she’s used the “getaway car” narrative that will become a common theme in later albums.

“Darling, let’s run,” she says, encouraging him to take her hand and leave it all behind. Like the criminals of no body, no crime and cowboy like me, they can escape their lives and start fresh with no suspicion surrounding them.

They can “Run from it all,” she says, “We can go where our eyes can take us.” They can go anywhere they want; anywhere but here.

She wants them to “Go where no one else is,” and “run” into a new life together.

“Ooh, we’ll run,” she says, hoping that this escapist fantasy will come true.

Verse 2: “No One to Be and No One to Tell”

“So you laugh like a child,” Ed Sheeran sings in the second verse. Like in Begin Again, which as the same themes of starting over and starting fresh, “you throw your head back laugin’ like a little kid.” She’ll be as excited as a little kid when they finally make their escape.

“And I’ll sing like no one cares,” he says of their imagined future, where they can ‘dance like no one is watching.’ But this is also a tiny meta moment: when either of these protagonists sing, people do care. Is this commentary on the celebrity spotlight?

There will be “No one to be and no one to tell,” he imagines of their future freedom. Once they run away, there will be no more expectations and no more pretending.

“I could see this view a hundred times,” he says, “Pale blue sky reflected in your eyes.” The “view” he could look at over and over is her and her blue eyes, but also the blue sky of freedom, stretched out before them with endless possibilities.

“So give me a reason,” he says, looking for any excuse to run away with her, “ and don’t say no, no.” He wants to run away just as much as she does.

2nd Pre-Chorus & Chorus: “The Note From the Locket”

“And the note from the locket,” Taylor sings in the pre-chorus, “you keep it in your pocket / since I gave it to you” This calls back to the “chain” and “piece of paper” from the first verse.

He keeps the piece of paper that says “I’ll wait for you” with him at all times, serving as a reminder that she’s always there for him.

“There’s a heart on your sleeve,” she says, using the common metaphor of wearing your ‘heart on your sleeve.’ He’s showing his emotional vulnerability to her.

“I’ll take it when I leave,” she says of his vulnerability and his heart, “And hold it for you.” She’ll keep his metaphorical heart safe, and keep it until he’s ready to run.

Bridge: “This Thing Was a Shot in the Dark”

“There’s been this hole in my heart,” they say to one another in the bridge. There’s been something missing for each of them, and they’ve been hurt before.

“This thing was a shot in the dark,” they say of their unpredictable romance. Like in Getaway Car and Say Don’t Go, they’re taking chances that may or may not pay off later.

But juxtaposing “hole in my heart” with “shot in the dark” means that the chance of this love – the possibilities – could either make or break them.

“Say you’ll never let ’em tear us apart,” they promise to one another, not letting anyone come between them. The “so-called friends” of the first verse don’t approve, and they hope the opinions of others won’t sabotage their chances.

“And I’ll hold onto you while we run,” they say, clinging to one another, as “we run and we run and we run” far away from it all.

Final Chorus: “We’ll Run”

In the final chorus, they’ll run “Like you’d run from the law,” and “run from it all.” They try desperately to keep their love private like in the future I Know Places, take their “shot in the dark” like Getaway Car, and imagine a romantic future like Wildest Dreams.

But unlike those other tracks, and unlike the doomed road trips of All Too Well, Run is much more hopeful. They won’t know what’s in store until they take the trip, and they’re both optimistic that it’ll be the journey of a lifetime.

Run Meaning: Final Thoughts

Thematically, this track parallels most of Taylor’s future songs about romantic escapism, but here, it’s a bit more hopeful that what will come later. They seem to want to keep their love private not because they’re being directly chased, but because they see a future that no one else can comprehend.

“Darling, let’s run” is an imagined getaway instead of a real one, and the running itself isn’t a road trip: it’s a trip into future hypothetical possibilities. They want to see where this will go, anywhere “our eyes can take us.”

She’ll pick up this narrative in the next album, 1989, and continue to deepen her romantic escape metaphors from there.

The future looks bright, and it could either end in “burning flames or paradise.” They won’t be able to find out until they give it a “shot in the dark.”

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