Running From Love: “The Bolter” Meaning, Fully Analyzed

In The Bolter, Taylor Swift narrates the story of a wild and free protagonist who’s forever running from intimacy. 

The song uses running and death metaphors to describe her quick escapes, bolting from anyone who gets too close to knowing the real her. 

What inspired this track, is it really about Taylor herself, and what can we learn from the lyrics? 

Here’s my full English teacher analysis of The Bolter meaning, line by line. 

The Bolter by Taylor Swift

• Title: The Bolter
• Written by: Taylor Swift, Aaron Dessner
• Track: 29, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology 
• Pen: Quill
• Lyrics from Genius

The Bolter Song Meaning: Narrative Synopsis

• Setting: Narrating the story of a chaotic, thrill-seeking protagonist, who is both looking for love and running away from intimacy. 
• Characters: Narrator (Taylor), Protagonist (“she”/”her”) 
• Mood: Escapist, witty, clever. 
• Conflict: The protagonist keeps looking for a love she can’t find, and runs away from close relationships. 
• Inciting Incident: “she almost drowned / When she was six in frigid water.” She has a formative near-death experience as a child, which leads to her thrill-seeking behavior as she grows up. 
• Quest: Find a love that doesn’t feel suffocating. 
• Symbolism, Similes, Metaphors & Deeper Meanings: “The Bolter,” “almost drowned,” “curious child,” “reviled,” “except her own father,” “bewitching face,” “splendidly selfish, charmindly helpless,” “excellent fun til you get to know her,” “started with a kiss,” “meeting like this,” “town car speeding out the drive,” “whore,” “she was leaving, it felt like breathing,” “all her fucking lives flashed before her eyes,” “like the time she fell through the ice, then came out alive,” “a cad,” “trophy hunter,” “the way it tastes,” “taming a bear,” “watching him jump then pulling him under,” “at first blush, this is fate,” “roses, portrait poses,” “Central Park Lake,” “rowboats,” “littlest leaks,” “Floorboards,” “she must bolt,” “many places,” “men of many faces,” “off to the races,” “drawin’ aces,” “chariot is waitin’,” “escape in escaping,” “she’s got the best stories,” “felt like freedom.” 
• Lesson: “There’s escape in escaping.” 

What is The Bolter About? 

In The Bolter, Taylor narrates the story of a precocious protagonist who is looking for love in all the wrong places. 

She has a formative near-death experience, and for the rest of her life, she tries to replicate that thrill by chasing and running away from intimacy. 

This song is about escapism, finding yourself, and the thrill of the chase. 

Who is The Bolter About? 

Taylor may have been inspired by Nancy Mitford and her classic novel The Pursuit of Love (explained further below). 

It’s also possible that she was inspired by Sylvia Plath, who tried to “bolt” in more serious ways (through suicide attempts), one of which was by driving into a lake. 

But – like most of Swift’s music – it likely ties into her own life and experiences as well. Taylor has described romantic escapism in many of her songs, including Getaway Car, I Know Places, Clean, Call it What You Want, the lakes, and more. 

Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love 

Taylor may have been inspired to write The Bolter by reading Nancy Mitford’s classic novel The Pursuit of Love (also recently made into a BBC miniseries starring Lily James and Andrew Scott). 

The plot of the novel follows two cousins, Linda Radlitt and narrator Fanny Logan, as Linda navigates her chaotic and thrilling search for “true love.” Fanny’s mother is nicknamed “the bolter” for her habit of serial monogamy, and Linda falls into the same pattern. 

The novel is partially autobiographical. Nancy Mitford, of the iconic and controversial Mitford sisters, had a romantic life and personality similar to her protagonist. 

In The Bolter, Taylor could be comparing her own romantic life and thrill-seeking to the lives of Nancy Mitford and her protagonist Linda Radlitt. 

The Bolter Lyrics Explained: Line by Line

“By all accounts, she almost drowned,” she begins in the first verse, “When she was six in frigid water.” Taylor is our narrator, and she’s relaying the story of an unknown protagonist. 

This girl nearly drowned in an icy lake, which will come to influence the rest of the plot. But what does the drowning symbolize? 

I think it likely ties into Nancy Mitford’s The Pursuit of Love, and to one particular line: 

“[They were] always either on a peak of happiness or drowning in black waters of despair they loved or they loathed, they lived in a world of superlatives”

― Nancy Mitford, The Pursuit of Love

The water symbolizes despair and ending your life before it’s even begun, and our protagonist uses this near-death experience to fuel the adventures of her life. She’ll always be chasing “superlatives”: the most exciting, the most thrilling, the most impossible. 

“And I can confirm she made,” she says, “A curious child, ever reviled / By everyone except her own father.” Like Taylor’s own “precocious” childhood (alluded to in I Hate it Here and But Daddy I Love Him), our protagonist is curious to the point of annoying. 

Everyone but her father is annoyed by her. In The Pursuit of Love, the protagonist’s uncle (her father-figure, known as “Fa”) is a grumpy but lovable eccentric, which is what Taylor could be alluding to here. 

But this also could simply be setting up her motivations to help us in the later plot. She’ll chase and run away from men not because she has “daddy issues,” but because she’s trying to recapture her near-death experience. 

Our protagonist has “a quite bewitching face,” and she’s “splendidly selfish, charmingly helpless.”  This paints her as a young, naive but beautiful girl: the center of attention in any room, just like Linda in Mitford’s novel.  

She’s “Excellent fun ’til you get to know her,” she says, “Then she runs like it’s a race.” If you try to get too close, she’ll run away like a frightened animal.

So what’s she so afraid of? It seems like intimacy is what she avoids: she doesn’t want people to see the real her. 

Hmmm…this sounds like a certain songwriter who is constantly shape-shifting and always moving, doesn’t it? 

“Behind her back, her best mates laughed,” she says of the protagonists’ friends, “And they nicknamed her ‘The Bolter’.” “Mates” is an interesting word to use, since Taylor is American. 

“Mates” is a British-ism, which could just be a word Taylor likes, but could point to Nancy Mitford’s British novel. There will be more of these clues later on that begin to add up. 

“The Bolter,” however, is the central clue that points to The Pursuit of Love. In the novel, the narrator’s mother is given no other name but “The Bolter,” due to her reputation for serial monogamy. 

1st Chorus: “As She Was Leaving, It Felt Like Breathing”

“Started with a kiss,” she says of the beginning of a new romance, “‘Oh, we must stop meeting like this’.” The protagonist cheekily smiles at this meet-cute, because she knows what’s coming. To meet “like this” will be devastating, once her lover finds out it’s the beginning of the end. 

“But it always ends up with a town car speeding,” she says of the end of the romance, “Out the drive one evening.” It’ll only end with her running away, time and time again. 

“Town car” is any larger vehicle driven by a chauffeur, and “the drive” describes a long driveway, like a mansion’s. This clues us in that our protagonist – like her possible literary inspiration – is wealthy. 

“Ended with the slam of a door,” she describes their angry parting, “Then he’ll call her a whore.” Like in Slut!, the protagonist will be marked with a scarlet ‘A’ for daring to get involved with a man and change her mind. 

🪶🤍 Are you a tortured poet? Find out with my TTPD Lyrics Quiz! 🤍🪶

“Wish he wouldn’t be sore,” she reads the protagonist’s thoughts. And here’s another clue: to be “sore” is antiquated language for being bitter or hurt by another. She wishes he wouldn’t be angry about this; she simply changed her mind. 

“But as she was leaving,” she says, “It felt like breathing.” It all goes back to the near-drowning: she longs for a similar gasp of life-giving air. She’s looking for that thrill all over again, and tries looking for it in romances. 

It doesn’t work, though, and she ends up leaving the relationship to give her that thrill. Leaving is the only thing that feels like freedom. 

Post-Chorus: “All Her Fuckin’ Lives Flashed Before Her Eyes”

“All her fuckin’ lives,” she says in the post-chorus, “Flashed before her eyes.” She’s like a cat with nine lives, or constantly playing different versions of herself and leaping from one existence to another. 

These past “lives” flash before her as she’s leaving, likening it to the first near-death experience. 

“It feels like the time / She fell through the ice,” she says, “Then came out alive.” It’s the most thrilling, exciting thing she’s got, constantly reaching for that long-ago moment in time when she was relieved to survive. 

She recreates this near-death with a thousand more little deaths, each relationship dying in a row. She hops from man to man, chasing and running away, living for the thrill of it all. 

This recalls a very early song of Taylor’s: Tied Together With A Smile. Those lyrics read: 

“Hold on, baby, you’re losing it

The water’s high, you’re jumping into it

And letting go, and no one knows

That you cry, but you don’t tell anyone

That you might not be the golden one

And you’re tied together with a smile

But you’re coming undone”

-Taylor Swift, “Tied Together With a Smile”

The protagonist constantly jumps into the metaphorical water again and again. But in jumping in, is she “losing it”? Is she “coming undone”? 

Or is coming “out alive” a thousand rebirths, and the only time she really feels like she’s living?

Verse 2: “Watching Him Jump Then Pulling Him Under”

“He was a cad, wanted her bad,” she says in the second verse, “Just like any good trophy hunter.” A “cad” is an antiquated term for a misogynist, which leaves us another easter egg toward Mitford’s novel. 

Taylor has used hunter and trophy metaphors before, as in I Knew You Were Trouble and The Archer. This “cad” thinks she’s the trophy to be won, not caring about the consequences of his “hunt.” 

“And she liked the way it tastes,” she says of being lured by this hunter. She enjoys this feeling of being desired. 

But then she flips the script on him, by “Taming a bear, making him care.” He’s now the prey, and she’s the “trophy hunter.” 

She’s “Watching him jump then pulling him under,” circling back to the icy lake drowning metaphor. He’ll “jump”, as in fall for her, but then she’ll drown him in her fatal fantasies. 

“And at first blush, this is fate,” she says of their placid beginnings, “When it’s all roses, portrait poses.” When any romance first begins, it feels fated and right; beautiful and romantic like roses. But roses have thorns. And she’ll show him hers. 

In the beginning, it’s “Central Park Lake in tiny rowboats / What a charming Saturday.” This paints their date as a classic film trope: the lovely couple goes on a romantic date in a boat in Central Park. 

But this is when she spies trouble. “That’s when she sees the littlest leaks / Down in the floorboards,” she says, “And she just knows she must bolt.” 

Their tiny boat is slowly flooding, signaling her cue to run. This ties into the water/drowning metaphor: the water, like from her near drowning, creeps in and slowly reminds her what that felt like. She wants that feeling again. 

But it also ties into the car speeding away. Do the floorboards of the boat remind her of the floorboards of her Getaway Car, and she feels the need to escape? 

Bridge: “There’s Escape in Escaping”

The chorus and post-chorus repeat then she begins the bridge.

“She’s been many places with / Men of many faces,” she says. She’s been through many eras of her life, with men who are now just blurred, anonymous faces. 

But “a man of many faces” means he’s pretending to be someone else, or he’s two-faced. Are these the same men who “masqueraded,” while she was waiting for Peter? Are they just distractions? 

“First, they’re off to the races,” she says of this quickly-accelerating romance, “And she’s laughing, drawin’ aces.” In any beginning, it’s fun and thrilling. It feels like she’s winning the game of love, “drawin’ aces” like in New Romantics. 

🪶🤍 Are you a tortured poet? Find out with my TTPD Lyrics Quiz! 🤍🪶

“But none of it is changin’,” she says of this repeating cycle, “That the chariot is waitin’.” The Getaway Car is always calling her name, waiting to take her away. 

“Hearts are hers for the breakin’,” she says of this irresistible protagonist. She can have any man she wants, but it doesn’t mean she’ll keep them. 

“There’s escape in escaping,” she closes out the bridge. This – if anything – is the central thesis of the song: she escapes her troubles by running away from intimacy. 

She escapes past versions of herself, escapes her mistakes, and escapes the freezing lake all over again, time after time. But what exactly is she running from? 

She’s running from herself. She doesn’t want to let anyone in, because she’s afraid they won’t like what they see. 

Final Chorus & Post Chorus: “But She’s Got the Best Stories, You Can Be Sure”

The final chorus repeats, but the second half changes. “Then he’ll call her a whore” changes to
“But she’s got the best stories.” 

What has all this running and escapism gained her? Storytelling. She’s got narratives upon narratives, endless characters, and plot lines for days, because she’s lived it all. 

This is Taylor poking her head through, nearly breaking the fourth wall by acknowledging that this – The Bolter – is one of her “stories.” It’s the closest she gets to admitting that these lyrics are about her own life. 

Like her possible inspiration, Nancy Mitford and The Pursuit of Love, Taylor is a master storyteller, and draws both on lived experiences as well as fictional ones. 

“You can be sure,” she says, “That as she was leaving / It felt like freedom.” “It felt like breathing” changes to “it felt like freedom.” So what’s the difference? 

The “breathing” – in the context of the drowning metaphor – was finally getting to live. But “freedom” is the way to live the way she wants. She doesn’t want to be tied down to a man. 

“All her fuckin’ lives / Flashed before her eyes,” she repeats, but then “(And she realized)” echoes in the background. She’s finally got some self-awareness here. 

She realizes that “It feels like the time / She fell through the ice / Then came out alive.” In this final post-chorus, she “came out alive”, possibly for the final time. 

Has she had a breakthrough, like breaking through those icy waters, and realized what she’s running from? And after this realization, will she stop running, or will she continue bolting? 

The Bolter Meaning: Final Thoughts 

The Bolter is one of Taylor’s most intricate and layered escapist songs of her entire discography. 

We could point to each hidden meaning as being inspired by other artists, but what’s most interesting is looking at it through the lens of Taylor’s own life. Her life parallels the protagonists’ in so many ways that it’s impossible to ignore. 

But what’s the overall lesson? “No matter where you go, there you are.” Like in her other similar narratives like Getaway Car and the lakes, she learns more about where she doesn’t belong than about where she does belong. 

But what is she really trying to outrun? Is it The Albatross of fame, or the mad woman in her mind? Or is she running due to her central romantic concern of The Archer: “who could ever leave me darlin’, but who could stay?”  

In this case, could she stay? Could she settle down long enough to let anyone in?

🪶🤍 Are you a tortured poet? Find out with my TTPD Lyrics Quiz! 🤍🪶

More Songs From The Tortured Poets Department

• Stevie Nicks’ TTPD Prologue Poem
• TTPD Epilogue Poem “In Summation”
• Fortnight
• The Tortured Poets Department
• My Boy Only Breaks His Favorite Toys
• Down Bad
• So Long, London
• But Daddy I Love Him
• Fresh Out The Slammer
• Florida!!!
• Guilty As Sin?
• Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
• I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can)
• Loml
• I Can Do It With A Broken Heart
• The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
• The Alchemy
• Clara Bow
• The Black Dog
• Imgonnagetyouback
• The Albatross
• Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus
• How Did it End?
• So High School 
• I Hate it Here
• thanK you aIMee
• I Look in People’s Windows
• The Prophecy
• Cassandra
• Peter
• Robin
• The Manuscript