What Does The Tortured Poets Department Mean? Full Lyrical Analysis of Track 2
The title track to Taylor Swift’s 2024 The Tortured Poets Department is deeply ironic, setting up themes and metaphors that will infuse the entire album.
But what is “the tortured poets department,” what does it mean, and who is this song really about?
Here’s my deep dive into The Tortured Poets Department meaning, line by line.
The Tortured Poets Department by Taylor Swift
- Title: The Tortured Poets Department
- Written by: Taylor Swift, Jack Antonoff
- Track: 2, The Tortured Poets Department
- Pen: Fountain & Quill
- Lyrics from Genius
The Tortured Poets Department Meaning: Narrative Summary
- Setting: Inside a relationship with a turbulent partner.
- Characters: Narrator (Taylor), subject (lover, “you”)
- Mood: Knowing, self-deprecating, cheeky.
- Conflict: Her lover is unpredictable and chaotic.
- Inciting Incident: “You left your typewriter at my apartment”: she sees evidence of him and ponders what it represents.
- Quest: Let him know that she understands him and is good for him.
- Symbols & Metaphors: “typewriter,” “tortured poets department,” “self-sabotage mode,” “throwing spikes down on the road,” “seen this episode and still loved the show,” “decodes you,” “hold you,” “know you,” “laughed in your face,” Dylan Thomas & Patty Smith, Chelsea Hotel, “modern idiots,” “You smokеd, then ate seven bars of chocolate,” Charlie Puth, “scratch your head,” “tattooed golden retriever,” “awaken with dread / pounding nails in your head,” “I’ve read this one where you come undone,” “cyclone,” “kill yourself,” “I felt seen,” “why it’s meant to be,” “we’re crazy,” “middle finger,” “wedding rings on,” “my heart exploding,” “gonna troll you.”
- Lesson: Sometimes two wrongs can make a right.
What is The Tortured Poets Department About?
Taylor’s title track describes a turbulent relationship with an unpredictable partner.
The “tortured poets department” is a metaphor for her lover’s erratic and self-sabotaging behavior, while the typewriter represents his way of making life more difficult.
She describes them as equally turbulent and “crazy,” alluding that they’re meant to be together as deeply compatible “tortured poets.”
Who is The Tortured Poets Department About?
Most fans assume that the title track was inspired by Matty Healy, frontman to The 1975. Healy’s erratic behavior, as well as his place as a “tortured artist” in the music industry, seem to confirm this suspicion.
But what’s more interesting is how Taylor describes herself in this narrative. She seems to say that she’s equally as “tortured” and “crazy,” and enjoys the turbulent nature of her partner’s actions.
Tortured Poet’s vs. Tortured Poets’ vs. Tortured Poets Department
Taylor’s use of possessives and punctuation is always meaningful. So why has she used tortured poets instead of tortured poets’ or tortured poet’s?
Tortured Poet‘s Department is a department with one singular tortured poet. But we know that there is more than one poet, as evidenced in the title track.
Tortured Poets’ Department is a department with more than one tortured poet. This would be the correct punctuation for the song and the album, if she’s referring to a department in which more than one poet works.
But Taylor has used Tortured Poets Department with no punctuation for both the title track and the album. So what does it mean?
There is no possession implied here. So in that case, she could be using “department” as a verb rather than a noun. The tortured poets are departing, as in leaving, or setting off on a journey.
Update: In the Fortnight behind-the-scenes video, Taylor revealed that she imagines “The Tortured Poets Department” as “municipal government building” where “tortured poets” are studied.
The lack of punctuation and possessives now makes total sense: the “tortured poets” don’t own or run the department. They’re the subject of study for the department. But the alternative meaning – the tortured poet departed – is also possible.
The Tortured Poets Department Lyrics Meaning: Line by Line
The first verse opens with “You left your typewriter at my apartment.”
Her lover has left evidence in her house, but who travels with a typewriter? It’s clunky, a pain to carry around, and it’s something no one else wants or needs, just like her lover (as we’ll learn later on).
The typewriter is “straight from the tortured poets department,” which labels her lover as a “tortured poet.” The trope of “tortured artist” is ancient: it’s a melancholy, mercurial character who suffers in the name of art.
Taylor has substituted “poet” for “artist,” and where else has she mentioned poets? the lakes: “take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die.” In that track, Taylor wants to run away to where all the other tortured poets lived out the rest of their days.
Her lover is the tortured artist, and the typewriter is evidence of his quirky, unstable personality. But, as we learned in the lakes, Taylor loves a tortured poet, and wants to follow in their footsteps. She wants to be a tortured poet, and wants to love a tortured poet.
But one important note: it’s not “straight from the tortured poet’s department” or “poets’ department”. It’s straight from the tortured poets department, as in more than one poet is departing. So where are they going?
The typewriter is evidence of this journey. Is it absence of evidence, or evidence of absence?
“I think some things I never say,” she muses, “Like, ‘Who uses typewriters anyway?’” She won’t call him out on his odd choices, but she makes a mental note.
Why won’t she voice her opinion? Because her lover is “in self-sabotage mode / Throwing spikes down on the road.” He’s in one of his temperamental moods, and she doesn’t want to rock the boat any further.
To “throw spikes down on the road” is a metaphor for self-sabotage. You’ll only slash your own tires when you lash out, and then you won’t be able to continue to “drive.”
“But I’ve seen this episode,” she says, comparing her lover’s behavior to a television show, “and still loved the show.” She’s seen this narrative trope play out before. But it didn’t deter her. She still “loved the show” means she still loves him, and loves all of him.
“Who else decodes you?” she ponders. They’re on the same level – she can see his actions before he even performs them, and knows why he does what he does.
She has the key that unlocks the labyrinth of her lover’s mind.
Chorus: “You’re Not Dylan Thomas, I’m Not Patti Smith”
“And who’s gonna hold you like me?” she asks rhetorically in the chorus. Who can accept, contain, and comfort him the way that she can? She’s the one who knows him best.
“And who’s gonna know you, if not me?” she wonders. She’s the only one he’s let in to see his true self.
“I laughed in your face and said,” she says, calling him out on his bullshit, “You’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith.” They aren’t the beatnik icons of their generation, nor the tortured poets of the 21st century.
Dylan Thomas was a famously mentally ill poet from Wales. He died at age 39 after a long battle with mental health and substance abuse.
Patti Smith, however, is American, a singer/songwriter and poet, and still alive. She’s one of the feminist icons of her generation, and a huge influence on Taylor.
“This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel,” she tells him, “we’rе modern idiots.” The Hotel Chelsea is a notorious New York City building in which several famous artists lived and died, including Dylan Thomas.
But what Taylor could also be alluding to here is the murder of Nancy Spungen by her boyfriend Sid Vicious (of Sex Pistols fame). The couple were staying in the Chelsea Hotel when Spungen was found stabbed to death. Vicious later died of a heroin overdose while out on bail.
“This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel” essentially means ‘we’re not going down like past tortured poets have.’ We may have the same crazy love and obsession, but we won’t go down that dark of a road. ‘We’re not the modern tortured poets,’ Taylor says, ‘we’re just “modern idiots”.’
“And who’s gonna hold you like me?” she asks him. Who else can contain him, and put up with all his mercurial bullshit? “Nobody,” she concludes. “No-fucking-body.”
But “no-fucking-body” also means that no other body will do. She only wants him, and he is better off if he just sits still and stays with Taylor. She can “decode” him when no one else can.
Verse 2: “You Smoked, Then Ate Seven Bars of Chocolate”
“You smokеd, then ate seven bars of chocolate,” she says. Even though they’re not in the Chelsea Hotel, they’re doing drugs just like those tortured poets did.
“Bars of chocolate” could reference a song by The 1975: Chocolate. In that track, “chocolate” is weed, and the characters go around causing all kinds of chaos in a drug-fueled spree. They’re bored teens, causing trouble because there’s nothing better to do.
Taylor’s lover does the same here, taking drugs out of boredom, and shooting the shit on a lazy evening.
“We declared Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist,” they say, rambling on in their stoned state. This is either satire – she doesn’t think Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist – or it’s pointing to a particular song. No reference Taylor leaves is unintentional.
Are you a tortured poet? Find out with my TTPD Lyrics Quiz!
The most likely candidate for me is Puth’s collaboration with Selena Gomez (one of Taylor’s BFFs) We Don’t Talk Anymore. That track says: “I just hope you’re lying next to somebody / Who knows how to love you like me,” echoing the sentiment of “And who’s gonna know you like me?”
“I scratch your head, you fall asleep,” she says, mothering him like an infant, “Like a tattooed golden retriever.” He’s loyal like a golden retriever, but deeply flawed as reflected in the tattoos.
But this comforting, sleepy moment doesn’t last. “But you awaken with dread,” she says, “Pounding nails in your head.” He wakes as if from a nightmare, and his turbulent cycle starts all over again.
This reminds us of “I wake in the night / I pace like a ghost” from The Archer. “The room is on fire, invisible smoke,” she says in that track. He’s doing the same thing here.
Is he wondering, “who could ever leave me, darling? But who could stay?”
“But I’ve read this one,” she says, comparing his next plot line to a mystery novel, “where you come undone.” She’s seen this film before, but instead of not liking the ending, she reminds herself: “I chose this cyclone with you.”
She asked for it, and entered into it willingly. He is the cyclone, but the two of them together also cause a cyclone.
Could it be the media circus that won’t leave them alone? Or are they two storms, who meet over the Atlantic to cause a catastrophic cyclone?
Bridge: “You’d Kill Yourself If I Ever Leave”
The bridge is the most candid that Taylor gets in this track.
“Sometimes, I wonder if you’re gonna screw this up with me,” she ponders. Will his turbulent nature cause him to run? Can a cyclone ever sit still?
“But you told Lucy you’d kill yourself if I ever leave,” she says, relaying the gossip of their friend group. Most fans point to Lucy Dacus as the “Lucy” here, but I don’t think the particular person matters: it’s their friend group rumor mill churning away.
“And I had said that to Jack about you,” she says, “so I felt seen.” She’s been talking to their friends, too (likely Jack Antonoff), and says she’d kill herself if he ever left.
Two lovers who would complete suicide if they had to be apart? That’s Romeo & Juliet, from the original “tortured poet” William Shakespeare. But it’s also Nancy Spungen and Sid Vicious. Both are very, very dark endings.
Does she actually mean they’d die without each other? No. She’s playing into the “tortured poet” trope.
She says they’re not tortured poets, but every description of their relationship in the song describes two tortured poets. This is the central irony of the narrative: she might not want them to be playing out this tortured artist romance trope, but they are.
“Everyone we know understands why it’s meant to be,” she says, “’Cause we’re crazy.” Jack, Lucy, and everyone else can see exactly why they fit together: they are both tortured poets. They’re made for each other.
“So tell me, who else is gonna know me?” she asks him. They’re so deeply compatible that no one else can see her – the real Taylor – like he can. Why? Because they’re the same person.
The final lines of the bridge relay an anecdote of just how giddy this love makes her. “At dinner, you take my ring off my middle finger,” she says, “And put it on the one people put wedding rings on.” He’s playing with her hands at a restaurant, implying that he’d marry her.
The American dream is so close she can touch it, and unlike in Fortnight, there is no wall between them.
“And that’s the closest I’ve come to my heart exploding,” she says. It makes her so deliriously happy that her heart nearly combusts.
But what else is an explosion? Catastrophic destruction.
Final Chorus: “Who’s Gonna Hold You? Me.”
The final chorus sees Taylor answering her own rhetorical questions.
“Who’s gonna hold you? (Who?)” she asks, then answers: “Me.” She’ll hold tight to him as long as she can. She’ll try to contain him, comfort him, and keep him.
“Who’s gonna know you? (Who?)” she asks, then answers: “Me.” She’ll always know who he is at heart, even though his behavior might be all over the place.
“And you’re not Dylan Thomas, I’m not Patti Smith,” she repeats one last time, “This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel, we’re two idiots.”
But by this point, every behavior she’s described means they are Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith. This is the Chelsea Hotel, where lovers do drugs and talk about suicide.
“Who’s gonna hold you?” she asks one last time. Game recognizes game, and these two tortured poets are made to play with each other. They’re each others’ only worthy opponents.
Post-Chorus & Outro: “Who Else Decodes You?”
“Who’s gonna hold you?” repeats in the post-chorus, over and over. She’s ruminating: will she get to hold him? And if not her, then who?
This again reminds us of The Archer: “who could ever leave me, darling? But who could stay?” This has been Taylor’s central romantic worry in her lyrics for quite some time. Is her life too big and too crazy for anyone to bear?
Will it take her male counterpart – another “tortured poet” – to finally win in the game of love?
“Gonna troll you?” is an interesting lyric change. Is the entire song trolling him and his “tortured poet” ways? And, therefore, is the entire album trolling him? It’s possible. But it could also simply mean that she calls him out on his bullshit in a way no one else can.
“You left your typewriter at my apartment,” she brings back in the outro, “Straight from the tortured poets department.” She sees this evidence of his eccentricity again, and ponders what it means.
Now that she has the “tortured poets” typewriter, does it mean she’s also officially a tortured poet? Or is it still just his emotional baggage, taking up space in her life, too clunky to be removed?
“Who else decodes you?” she summarizes. He’s a puzzle that only she can crack.
If he screws this up, he won’t have another chance at having his codes deciphered. Then he’ll just be a crazy artist toting around a typewriter, with nowhere to set it down.
Are you a tortured poet? Find out with my TTPD Lyrics Quiz!
The Tortured Poets Department Meaning: Final Thoughts
What’s the overall message in this track? Taylor is a tortured poet. She just has a shinier, more sleek exterior than her predecessors.
She wants a partner who can relate to her on that level, and in this track, she’s found it. Will it last? Who knows. But for one shining moment – or a Fortnight – she got to live her tortured artist dreams.
But then, suddenly, the tortured poets departed, or parted. Her tortured poet left, and the tortured poet inside of her left along with him.
Where did they go? And what will she do next? It’ll take the rest of the album to find out.
More Songs From The Tortured Poets Department
- Stevie Nicks’ TTPD Prologue Poem
- TTPD Epilogue Poem “In Summation”
- Fortnight
- 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
- The Bolter
- Robin
- The Manuscript
