The Lakes

This song is often misunderstood and overlooked because of its complex lyrics and melancholic melody. In this deep dive, I’ll break down the lyrics in the most understandable way possible, and show why I believe it deserves a place among the top songs in Swift’s discography.

Hi!
I spent the past year immersing myself in folklore, getting lost in its lyrics, storytelling, and intricate connections between its songs. Join me as I explore the emotional layers, narrative depth, and the hidden mysteries within the album.

Although The Lakes is a bonus track with less relevance to the overall album, I feel like it’s the perfect warm-up, as it beautifully captures Taylor Swift’s songwriting style. Plus, it’s my favorite, so I’m a little biased here. Haha!

I’ve divided it into three parts for better understanding:

First, The Literary Roots of Romanticsm

The song was inspired by English Romanticism, a movement that countered the rationality of Neoclassicism in an earlier age. The Lakes references to Lake District in England, a known region in literature, as Romantic poets like William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge both wrote and lived there.

Romantism valued emotions, self reflection, and nature, while Neoclassicism focused on logic, structure and order. if we put that in today’s terms, Neoclassicism is like science—all about the mind—while Romanticism is like art—all about the heart. Both played a crucial role in shaping the culture and thought of their time.

She opens the song with:

Is it romantic how all my elegies eulogize me?

An elegy is a poem written in memory of someone who has died, and to eulogize means to deliver a tribute—typically at a funeral.

Swift is often labeled as someone who only writes songs about breakups. But in The Lakes, she’s pushing back on that. By referring to her songs as elegies, she’s questioning whether her art is being unfairly defined, as those songs are only a small part of her creative and deeper work.

I’m not cut out for all these cynical clones
These hunters with cell phones

Here, Swift expresses that she doesn’t belong in a society lacking authenticity and depth (“cynical clones”) and those who chase her flaws (“hunters with cell phones”).

She then begins to mirror the idea of Romanticism in the chorus, reflecting themes of solitude, disconnection from society, and emotional longing:

Chorus:

Take me to the Lakes where all the poets went to die
I don’t belong, and my beloved, neither do you
Those Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cry
I’m setting off, but not without my muse

She longs to escape to the same place where the Romantic poets retreated. Die is a metaphor used for peace, rest, and the chance to create. Windermere is the largest lake in the Lake District. Swift wants to escape the chaos, pressure, and expectations placed on her by the outside world, and just be in tune with herself (“perfect place to cry”). She emphasizes a strong desire to leave everything behind—but only with her lover, her muse.

Verse:

What should be over burrowed under my skin
In heart-stopping waves of hurt
I’ve come too far to watch some namedropping sleaze
Tell me what are my words worth

This verse talks about pain that still lingers—the kind that hits in waves. She reflects on having been through a lot, only to be dismissed. A “sleaze” is someone dishonest, and “name-dropping” is an act of trying to gain attention by associating with other people’s names. This line could reflect personal disrespect—or, on a larger scale, how society dismisses her art, as if her words do not matter.

There’s also a clever play on words here, referencing poet William Wordsworth: “what are my words worth?”—tying the lyric back to the literary themes of the song.

Second, Not a Song About Moving On From a Relationship

Bridge:

I want auroras and sad prose
I want to watch wisteria grow right over my bare feet
‘Cause I haven’t moved in years
And I want you right here

This is one of my favorite lyrics of all time. It’s raw, deep, and figuratively rich.

Aurora symbolizes wonder, like the aurora borealis, and prose is a form of writing where you can freely express yourself without strict structure. Swift is saying that she wants both beauty and authenticity in all forms—even if it’s sad.

Wisteria, a flower that also grows in the Lake District, symbolizes love and devotion as it blooms gradually over time. Swift wants to experience her personal growth, naturally, in that space, with her lover by her side.

A red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground
With no one around to tweet it
While I bathe in cliffside pools
With my calamitous love and insurmountable grief

Here, the red rose rising from frozen ground is a striking metaphor. It’s an image of unlikely beauty—growing a flower in frozen soil is nearly impossible. She wants to create beauty, love, and romance—symbolized by the rose—in a place where almost nothing should be able to grow. A love that doesn’t need validation—“no one around to tweet it”—because it rests in its own solitude.

Cliffside pools are places where people often sit with their thoughts. Swift reflects on the chaos of love (“calamitous love”) and the emotional weight (“insurmountable grief”) she’s carried. In the Lakes, she’s not hiding any of it—and she wants her beloved to sit with her, too.

Third, The Core of The Lakes
The Lakes is all about deep emotion, grounding, true romance, and healing. It’s about a love that finds beauty in stillness—in quiet moments, nature, and in simply being. It’s the longing to run away from the pressure and expectations of the world with the one you love. It’s where art is born, where emotions are safe to unfold, and where love becomes something deep, steady, and real.