Taylor Swift

I’ll just leave you knowing that this is one of the many lyrical masterpieces that Taylor Swift has released.

In 2019, Taylor Swift released her seventh album. The album is called Lover, and it’s one for the hopeless romantics. However, track five has a bit more meaning behind it than just falling in love. Track five is entitled“The Archer.” It’s a very deep song people with anxiety tend to relate to, but if you really listen to the lyrics you’ll understand that it’s almost what your mind goes through during a panic attack. 

  The first line is, “Combat, I’m ready for combat. Said I don’t want that but what if I do?” To me this line symbolizes what it feels like to always have your guard up. The feeling of never knowing who you can really trust. A lyric from verse one that really stood out to me was “I’ve got a hundred thrown out speeches I almost said to you” it’s really easy to know exactly what you want to say to someone but then scrap everything the moment the conversation starts. 

  In this song every single line is so different and each tells a story. It’s almost like being in someone’s brain and their mind is going 100 miles per minute. A good example of this is in the second verse and Swift sings, “I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost. The room is on fire, invisible smoke.” Following that last line is, “all of my heroes die all alone” then in the bridge it switches to, “all of my enemies started out friends.” This is an example of the mindset of being the archer, being the one that fights for yourself and others but never knowing who is going to fight for you. 

  Like most choruses in most songs –it repeats. It’s fairly short compared to other songs and sings, “I’ve been the archer, I’ve been the pray. Screaming who could ever leave me, darling? But who could stay?” This chorus is quite well known and for good reason. The first part is Swift saying that she’s been hunted and she had to start wearing this armor so she wouldn’t be hunted anymore. This armor and being the archer is symbolic because the archer is trying to put up this mask saying, “Who could ever leave me?” They’re trying to come off confident, but deep down are thinking, “But who would stay?” They constantly have that feeling in the back of their minds, they have to protect themselves, they don’t know who they can trust. 

  Like most songs, the bridge is the most iconic part. Swift sings, “Can you see right through me?”, then, “They see right through me”, and finally, “I see right through me.” This is kind of alluring to the socially anxious people pleasers that constantly try to put up this front that they’re perfect all the time. Especially because most people have someone that can read them like a book, I myself have someone like this and it’s a blessing and a curse. In the other part of the bridge Swift sings, “All the king’s horses and all the king’s men. Couldn’t put me together again,” this is a little funny because if you listen to the lyrics and know the nursery rhyme you’ll notice and she quotes Humpty Dumpty.

  I said previously that the lyrics are what someone’s mind goes through during a panic attack. It’s not due to the melody or backing track because the track is actually very calm. However, as I also stated earlier, the lyrics are so different from one another due to the fact that the lyrics fit together but they don’t fully makesene. If you listen to the song but don’t know the meaning or just don’t understand it, it feels like you’re in someone else’s brain. 

  This song isn’t the typical Taylor Swift song, it’s in no way a “Love Story,” but I think there’s an underlying beauty in that. This song makes people feel a little bit more seen. This song means so much to me and if I wanted I could ramble about this one song for hours but I won’t. I’ll just leave you knowing that this is one of the many lyrical masterpieces that Taylor Swift has released.