“In Summation”: TTPD’s Epilogue Poem, Explained Line By Line

Taylor Swift didn’t write a traditional prologue for The Tortured Poets Department. Instead, she wrote an epilogue poem. “In Summation” closes out the album with a poetic post-mortem. 

What does this poem mean, how does it serve to tie together all the loose ends of the album, and why would Taylor use an epilogue instead of a prologue? 

Here’s my full English teacher analysis of Taylor’s TTPD epilogue, line by line. 

Cover image for Swiftly Sung Stories' analysis of Taylor Swift's TTPD epilogue. A black vintage typewriter displays title text on its paper: "In Summation: TTPD Epilogue Poem, line by line analysis."

Note: If you haven’t yet read the Stevie Nicks poem that serves as TTPD’s prologue, read that first, then come back here for the epilogue analysis. 

TTPD Epilogue: Full Text (2024) 

“Summary Poem by Taylor Swift

In Summation  

At this hearing 
I stand before my fellow members
Of The Tortured Poets Department
With a summary of my findings
A debrief, a detailed rewinding
For the purpose of warning
For the sake of reminding 

As you might all unfortunately recall
I had been struck with a case
of a restricted humanity
With explains my plea here today
of temporary i n s a n i t y

You see, the pendulum swings
Oh, the chaos it brings 
Leads the caged beast to do
the most curious things 

Lovers spend years denying what’s ill fated
Resentment rotting away 
galaxies we created

Stars placed and glued
meticulously by hand
next to the ceiling fan 

Tried wishing on comets,
Tried dimming the shine, 
Tried to orbit his planet, 
Some stars never 
align. 

And in one conversation, I tore down the whole sky. 

Spring sprung forth with dazzling freedom hues
Then a crash from the skylight 
bursting through 
Something old, someone hallowed, 
who told me he could be brand new 

And so I was out of the oven
and into the microwave
Out of the slammer and into a tidal wave
How gallant to save the empress 
from her gilded tower 
Swinging a sword he could barely lift 
But loneliness struck at that fateful hour
Low hanging fruit on his wine stained lips

He never even scratched the surface 
of me. 

None of them did. 

“In summation, it was not a love affair!” 
I screamed while bringing my fists
to my coffee ringed desk
It was a mutual manic phase. 
It was self harm. 
It was house and then cardiac arrest. 

A smirk creeps onto this poet’s face
Because it’s the worst men that I write best. 

And so I enter into evidence
My tarnished coat of arms
My muses, acquired like bruises
My talismans and charms 
The tick, tick, tick of love bombs
My veins of pitch black ink 

All’s fair in love and poetry 

Sincerely, 

The Chairman 
of The Tortured Poets Department”

-Taylor Swift, “In Summation,” Epilogue to The Tortured Poets Department, 2024

TTPD Epilogue Analysis: Line By Line

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's TTPD epilogue poem, "In Summation," on a cream background in black typeface. Red English teacher's pen highlights hidden and double meanings, explains the use of literary and poetic devices, and connects the poem to song lyrics from the album.
The portion of the poem reads: 

"In Summation  

At this hearing 
I stand before my fellow members
Of The Tortured Poets Department
With a summary of my findings
A debrief, a detailed rewinding
For the purpose of warning
For the sake of reminding "

“In Summation,” she begins, the phrase serving as the poem’s title. This poem is the summary of the album, condensed into stanzas. All of the themes, ideas, plot lines, characters, and conflicts of the album will be rehashed here, in short form. 

“At this hearing,” she says, “I stand before my fellow members of The Tortured Poets Department with a summary of my findings.” 

What is “this hearing”? It’s the trial of the album. Our tortured poet has been charged with being a madwoman. She’s now here to plead her case.

All the evidence – the songs of the album – have been submitted, and, after the album is over, our Chairman reconvenes The Tortured Poets Department for one final meeting to decide her fate.

And what is The Tortured Poets Department? In the Fortnight behind-the-scenes video, Taylor revealed that TTPD is “a government municipal building where they study the behaviors and minds of poets.” 

She’s here to present her department, where she studies and is studied, with “A summary of my findings.”

She has conducted a thorough investigation into her tortured heart, the tortured heart of her lover, and the tortured hearts of her fellow tortured poets. She’ll now relay the lessons she has learned in this detailed investigation. 

The rest of the poem that follows will be “A debrief, a detailed rewinding,” she says, “for the purpose of warning,” and “for the sake of reminding.” This will be an allegorical tale, she says, and we are to heed the lessons that she’s learned throughout the album. 

But is it also to remind herself of what she went through, as well as to warn her audience of what can happen when you fall in love with a tortured poet? It seems so. 

“My Plea Here Today of Temporary I N S A N I T Y”

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's TTPD epilogue poem, "In Summation," on a cream background in black typeface. Red English teacher's pen highlights hidden and double meanings, explains the use of literary and poetic devices, and connects the poem to song lyrics from the album.
The portion of the poem reads: 
"As you might all unfortunately recall
I had been struck with a case
of a restricted humanity
With explains my plea here today
of temporary i n s a n i t y

You see, the pendulum swings
Oh, the chaos it brings 
Leads the caged beast to do
the most curious things "

“As you might all unfortunately recall,” she says, looking back over her past. And what’s in her most recent past? Midnights. 

In that most recent album, “I had been struck with a case of a restricted humanity.” Midnights was, indeed, “full of cages, full of fences.” 

In Dear Reader, she ‘paced in her pen’. In the Midnights prologue, she described the sleepless nights where “we twist in our self-made cages.” And in TTPD’s The Albatross, she describes being locked in towers. 

Her “restricted humanity” – where she has been locked away with limited access to the outside world (and the people who populate the outside world ) – “explains my plea here today of temporary insanity.” 

Why did she go temporarily insane? Because she finally broke free of her prison bars, and she was Fresh Out The Slammer, running with my dress unbuttoned,” wild and free, with no more pens to contain her. And she should not be left to her own devices, as she’s warned us before.

“You see, the pendulum swings,” she says, conjuring the clock imagery of Midnights. As her life oscillates from one extreme to the next, “Oh, the chaos it brings.” She was caged, slowly building resentment and rage, and when she finally broke free, all that energy burst out in a chaotic storm. 

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

This shift from “restricted humanity” to utter freedom “leads the caged beast to do the most curious things.” She observes her behaviors at a distance, like the tortured poets are observed inside TTPD. 

Like in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, their behavior is “curiouser and curiouser.” It doesn’t make sense, which is why she enters her plea of “temporary insanity”: she knows how this looks. But she’s here to explain why it happened. She’s here to defend herself.

“Some Stars Never Align” 

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's TTPD epilogue poem, "In Summation," on a cream background in black typeface. Red English teacher's pen highlights hidden and double meanings, explains the use of literary and poetic devices, and connects the poem to song lyrics from the album.
The portion of the poem reads: 
"Lovers spend years denying what’s ill fated
Resentment rotting away 
galaxies we created

Stars placed and glued
meticulously by hand
next to the ceiling fan 

Tried wishing on comets,
Tried dimming the shine, 
Tried to orbit his planet, 
Some stars never align."

“Lovers spend years denying what’s ill fated,” she says, implying that she spent years denying that her invisible string led her astray. 

“Resentment rotting away,” she says of these years of denial, “galaxies we created.” She thought they had created their own universe, but really, their bitterness tainted the whole sky, and caused it to crumble. 

“Stars placed and glued meticulously by hand,” she says, “next to the ceiling fan.” It wasn’t a real galaxy; it was all an illusion. Instead of a Renoir, it was a 2nd-grader’s science poster. All of their hard work – her hard work – was directed toward a false god.

“Tried wishing on comets,” she says, “Tried dimming the shine.” She “looked to the sky” and tried to “change the prophecy,” but in the end, she could never lower herself down to earth to be with him. She was too cosmic; he was too earthly. 

“Tried to orbit his planet,” she says, altering her world to revolve around his. Like in tolerate it, “I made you my temple, my mural, my sky,” but in the end, “Some stars never align.” It was never meant to be, and no amount of hard work could change their cosmic destiny. 

Their planets were never meant to collide. Their paths – their orbits – were arranged to circle one another, and never intersect. 

“In One Conversation, I Tore Down The Whole Sky”

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's TTPD epilogue poem, "In Summation," on a cream background in black typeface. Red English teacher's pen highlights hidden and double meanings, explains the use of literary and poetic devices, and connects the poem to song lyrics from the album.
The poem portion reads: 
"And in one conversation, I tore down the whole sky. 

Spring sprung forth with dazzling freedom hues
Then a crash from the skylight 
bursting through 
Something old, someone hallowed, 
who told me he could be brand new "

“And in one conversation,” she continues, “I tore down the whole sky.” Years of hard work, and trying to twist fate, came to a screeching halt with just a few words.

The stars glued next to the ceiling fan fell down, and their makeshift galaxy ceased to exist. It implodes, and she realizes it was all a facade.

“Spring sprung forth with dazzling freedom hues,” she says, after her old galaxy has imploded and her newfound freedom colors her world with light. 

“Then a crash from the skylight,” she says, “bursting through”. Her ceiling – where the former false galaxy used to hang – crashes in, a new person bursting into her life and her home. 

“Something old, someone hallowed,” she says of this dramatic entrance,  “who told me he could be brand new.” This is a person who has been in her life before, and held a position of importance. 

He was holy, he was formative, he was historic. Maybe it had ended badly before, but he promises this time will be different. 

It will be different this time, and they can create a real galaxy together. Right?

“He Never Even Scratched The Surface of Me”

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's TTPD epilogue poem, "In Summation," on a cream background in black typeface. Red English teacher's pen highlights hidden and double meanings, explains the use of literary and poetic devices, and connects the poem to song lyrics from the album.
The portion of the poem reads: 
"And so I was out of the oven
and into the microwave
Out of the slammer and into a tidal wave
How gallant to save the empress 
from her gilded tower 
Swinging a sword he could barely lift 
But loneliness struck at that fateful hour
Low hanging fruit on his wine stained lips

He never even scratched the surface 
of me. 

None of them did. "

“And so I was out of the oven,” she says, “and into the microwave.” Where before she was at a slow, steady heat, simmering along in her career and her love life, now she’s zapped into an intense, hot romance in the spotlight. 

She was “Out of the slammer and into a tidal wave,” she says. Escaping her prison, she is suddenly swept away by a force of nature. 

“How gallant to save the empress from her gilded tower,” she says. In her fairytale gold cage, where she’s been locked away, the white knight comes to save her. But this will not end happily ever after. 

When her white knight comes, he’s “swinging a sword he could barely lift.” He’s not strong enough – or sober enough – to be the white knight he’s promised he can be. 

“But loneliness struck at that fateful hour,” she says of the hour when she realizes the truth: this isn’t right. This isn’t fated, either, as much as she wants it to be. She’s simply “low hanging fruit on his wine stained lips.” 

To be low-hanging fruit is to be unimportant, or easily attained. In reality, she’s neither. But he assumes this job will be simple, just to be with her. He drinks his way through this relationship, taking none of it seriously, love bombing and smooth talking. 

“He never even scratched the surface of me,” she says candidly, “None of them did.” No one has stayed long enough to get to know the Taylor underneath the Taylor Swift machine. 

Like Stevie Nicks says in TTPD’s prologue poem:  

“She was way too hot to handle, 
He was way too high to try
He couldn’t even see her
He wouldn’t open his eyes”

He’s not a “gallant” savior; he’s the court jester. If anyone will “scratch the surface,” it won’t be this clown, promising feats of strength he can never deliver. 

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

“It Was House and Then Cardiac Arrest”

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's TTPD epilogue poem, "In Summation," on a cream background in black typeface. Red English teacher's pen highlights hidden and double meanings, explains the use of literary and poetic devices, and connects the poem to song lyrics from the album.
The portion of the poem reads: "“In summation, it was not a love affair!” 
I screamed while bringing my fists
to my coffee ringed desk
It was a mutual manic phase. 
It was self harm. 
It was house and then cardiac arrest. 

A smirk creeps onto this poet’s face
Because it’s the worst men that I write best. "

“‘In summation, it was not a love affair!’ I screamed while bringing my fists to my coffee ringed desk,” she says. It wasn’t’ love. It was denial, or bargaining, or depression. But it wasn’t love, and she sees it clearly now, angry she deluded herself. 

“It was a mutual manic phase,” she says of their short period of euphoria and excited energy. But what comes after mania? Depression. Implosion. 

“It was self harm,” she says with the clarity of hindsight. Was she punishing herself, trying to make something work that – by all evidence and history – was never going to work? 

“It was house and then cardiac arrest,” she says. Her house arrest – her previous relationship – led directly into an attack of the heart, or an attack on her heart.  

“A smirk creeps onto this poet’s face,” she smiles to her reader, “Because it’s the worst men that I write best.” Though this relationship imploded, and she chose a chaotic partner, everything is copy. He’ll make an excellent muse. 

And why else is she smirking? Because she’s killing two birds with one stone. She’ll get excellent fodder for her songwriting, and she’ll get revenge on this court jester in the most potent way: by writing very public – and very pointed – songs about him. 

She has good reason to smirk, as she slyly submits The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived into evidence. He’s the boy who will only break his favorite toys, he’s the project partner she’s tried to fix, he’s Peter Pan, who will never grow up.

She writes this “worst man” with a deft hand, laying out all the intimate details of his betrayals and shortcomings. Now the court, and the fellow members of the tortured poets department, can see what he really is.

“My Veins of Pitch Black Ink”

Annotated portions of Taylor Swift's TTPD epilogue poem, "In Summation," on a cream background in black typeface. Red English teacher's pen highlights hidden and double meanings, explains the use of literary and poetic devices, and connects the poem to song lyrics from the album.
The portion of the poem reads: 
"And so I enter into evidence
My tarnished coat of arms
My muses, acquired like bruises
My talismans and charms 
The tick, tick, tick of love bombs
My veins of pitch black ink 

All’s fair in love and poetry 

Sincerely, 

The Chairman 
of The Tortured Poets Department”

“And so I enter into evidence,” she closes down this hearing, “My tarnished coat of arms.” 

This hearing is coming to an end, and what’s on trial? Her “tortured poet” behavior. The investigation, at its core, is to figure out why she has behaved as she has. Is she “crazy,” as the tortured poets of the past have been branded, or did she go temporarily insane? 

In her defense, she presents herself: “my tarnished coat of arms.” Her entire being, her identity, scarred by her past. ‘This is why,’ she says, ‘I am who I am, because at my core, I am a tortured poet.’ She is the caged beast, who does “the most curious things,” and then writes about it.

She presents “My muses, acquired like bruises, my talismans and charms.” Her muses – “the worst men that I write best” – are submitted into evidence, as well as the pain they have caused. 

But what are her “talismans and charms”? It’s helpful to look at her Time Magazine interview for context: 

“The rerecordings project feels like a mythical quest to her. “I’m collecting horcruxes,” she says. “I’m collecting infinity stones. Gandalf’s voice is in my head every time I put out a new one. For me, it is a movie now.”

Her “talismans and charms” are her other albums – her body of work. She presents the entire scope of her songwriting, hoping the verdict will turn in her favor. She hasn’t always been “crazy,” and her albums of the past are her character references. 

“The tick, tick, tick of love bombs” are also submitted into evidence, which prove that she was – in fact – a victim of false promises. “Tick, tick” go the empty odes made by white knights, uttered by “wine-stained lips,” “promises oceans deep, but never to keep.”  

She then pours her entire being – her blood – out before the court. Opening her veins, pouring out onto the page, we see that she is a tortured poet down to her bones, with “veins of pitch black ink.” 

She is a songwriter through and through, and though her behavior may be studied and critiqued, it cannot change who she is. Everything leading up to now has made her the person that stands before the court. 

“All’s fair in love and poetry,” she smirks. Like “all’s fair in love and war,” the rules have gone out the window. In matters of the heart, like on the battlefield, anything goes. And in this album, everything is fair game, and all the harsh truths will be revealed. 

“Sincerely,” she signs off, “The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department.”

What does her position as “Chairman” mean? Is she the leader of the tortured poets who are studied, or is she the one doing the investigation? Or is she both?

It’s unclear, but I think what she’s getting at is that she’s the MOST tortured poet. She’s at the center of this scientific study, just as she’s at the center of the celebrity world.

Her veins run black; it’s who she is at her very core. And – like all the tortured poets of the past who have been called “crazy” – all eyes are now on her. 

Was her behavior due to “love bombing,” “a mutual manic phase,” “house arrest,” “loneliness,” or – most intriguing – was she just trying to be seen? 

She’s presented her evidence – all the songs of the album – and now it’s up to us, the fellow members of the Tortured Poets Department – to reach a verdict. 

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

Taylor’s TTPD Epilogue: Final Thoughts

The evidence has been submitted. What will the verdict be?

Is Taylor Guilty as Sin? Or is she a mere victim of a tainted prophecy?

Will she beat the heat, and beat the charges, too? Or will she be convicted, and sentenced to the slammer?

In this “mutual manic phase,” was she The Bolter, who ran to save herself, or The Albatross, who will only wreak havoc on anyone in her orbit?

Were these two lovers really Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith, but only managed a fortnight before their tortured hearts combusted? Or was it all a manic dream, like an alien abduction?

But most importantly, what was it all for? Was it simply content for The Manuscript, or was it yet another obstacle that she had to surmount with a broken heart?

Whatever we decide of her fate, the tales told inside TTPD no longer define our author. “The story isn’t mine anymore,” she says in the final song of the album.

She concludes the album – and this chapter of her life – with this post-mortem epilogue, well and truly putting the trials of the album to bed.

Where she goes next, only she knows. But her “veins of pitch black ink” will always be spilling out onto the page, writing her own story.

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