25 Love Songs Taylor Swift Wrote About Joe Alwyn That Are Now Heartbreaking

By now you've probably heard the news that Taylor Swift and her long-time boyfriend Joe Alwyn have broken up. There is a small sliver of me holding on to hope that these are false rumors. However, her publicist who is quick to dispel false rumors has been noticeably silent. Leading me to believe she was the "source". And consequently that the relationship Swift has been so eloquently writing about for 5 albums now, is truly over. It is reported to have been an amicable split and that the two stars simply grew apart. But that doesn't mean it's somewhat easy. As a 15+ year die-hard Taylor Swift fan, I can't help but feel sad for Swift and Alwyn. The relationship lasted for 6 almost 7 years and led to numerous love songs that Taylor Swift wrote about now ex-beau Joe Alwyn.

While critics of the global superstar are quick to think they are swift by saying "Here comes another album" or label her the "problem", she is hardly a "serial dater" these days. Not only is this incredibly insensitive, it's also a false narrative that she only writes breakup songs. The relationship lasted for 6 almost 7 years and led to numerous love songs that Taylor Swift wrote about now ex-beau Joe Alwyn.

Listening to these songs now has a completely different impact, and honestly, many of them are now heartbreaking. A common theme in the songs written about Joe is how devastated she would be if they ever ended things. Knowing that that fear she wrote about so many times is now a reality, it's tough to process. I just hope she is ok, and that this will lead her to who she is meant to be with. Even if that isn't Alwyn. But for now let's take a look back at the songs Taylor Swift wrote for Joe Alwyn and the lyrics that were once inspiring, that now take a heartbreaking tone. Many of these she now has to sing every weekend on her sold-out Era's Tour.

The first album that featured songs about Alwyn was 2017's reputation.

The biggest hit from reputation was Delicate. This songs details the very beginning stages of the couple's relationship. It hits on how he valued her, not the superstar, and not the negative representation she had been given in the media. "You must like me for me" and "Stay here, honey, I don't want to share 'Cause I like you" reflect how she felt as she was falling in love. 

In this track that features special guests Ed Sheeran and Future, Swift sings about how she wants to be Joe Alwyn's "End Game". Some lyrics that stand out about the couple's love are:

I don't wanna touch you (I don't wanna be)
Just another ex-love (you don't wanna see)
I don't wanna miss you (I don't wanna miss you)
Like the other girls do

King Of My Heart is all about in midst of everything going on in her life at the time, accepting maybe she would end up alone, the one she considered "the one" came along. Some of the lyrics that best describe this are:

I'm perfectly fine, I live on my own
I made up my mind, I'm better off bein' alone
We met a few weeks ago
Now you try on callin' me, baby, like tryin' on clothes

And all at once, you are the one I have been waiting for
King of my heart, body and soul, ooh whoa

I certainly wasn't ready for the news that dropped this weekend. But lucky for Taylor Joe was ready for it back in 2016. In Ready For It Swift tells us that Alwyn was better than her exes, that she knows she's going to be with him, and that "Every lover known in comparison is a failure".

Some, some boys are tryin' too hard
He don't try at all, though
Younger than my exes but he act like such a man, so
I see nothing better, I keep him forever

Taylor details a side of her and Joe's relationship that she rarely discusses in Dress. She also writes about how no one knows the truth and the details of their relationship. She alludes to when they first met (the 2016 Met Gala) when her hair was bleached and Alywn's buzz cut. And that "even in the worst times, you saw the best in me"

There is an indentation in the shape of you
Made your mark on me, a golden tattoo

"I'm doing better than I ever was" Swift writes about the time in her life as her 6 year relationship with Alwyn began. All the drama and shade being thrown at her "turns to nothing when I look at you". He loved her during some of the hardest times of her life, and that is something special.

Cause my baby's fit like a daydream
Walkin' with his head down, I'm the one he's walkin' to
So call it what you want, yeah, call it what you want to

Hands down my favorite song on reputation, this one hurts. This song is about having something that the excitement isn't the party or the night out, it's the simple times. " How she wants to be with him and the good and bad moments and that she will always stay.  She writes:

I'll be there if you're the toast of the town, babe
Or if you strike out and you're crawling home

Don't read the last page
But I stay when it's hard, or it's wrong, or we're making mistakes
I want your midnights
But I'll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year's Day

Another song that refers to the couple's initial meeting at the Met Gala, and how she felt when she first laid eyes on him.

You should think about the consequence
Of your magnetic field being a little too strong

You're so gorgeous
I can't say anything to your face
'Cause look at your face
And I'm so furious
At you for making me feel this way
But, what can I say?
You're gorgeous

2019's Lover was the first album Swift has complete ownership of. It also, as the title reflects, has numerous songs about her "Lover" Alwyn.

The "Lover" title track is written as if Swift is writing her wedding vows. She feels like she's known him forever "Have I known you 20 seconds or 20 years?" And alludes to how she want's that 20 years to turn into eternity "I've loved you three summers now, honey, but I want 'em all". This entire song is an ode to the romance, and has to be heartbreaking for her to sing every night on tour. 

Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand?
With every guitar string scar on my hand
I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover
My heart's been borrowed and yours has been blue
All's well that ends well to end up with you
Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover
And you'll save all your dirtiest jokes for me
And at every table, I'll save you a seat, lover

"I like shiny things, but I'd marry you with Paper Rings", she wanted him not the idea of a wedding or a diamond ring, him. Paper Rings describes the life they built together, how she "read all of the books beside your bed".

Darling, you're the one I want, and
I hate accidents except when we went from friends to this

I want to drive away with you
I want your complications too
I want your dreary Mondays
Wrap your arms around me, baby boy

Track 5 on "Lover" is "The Archer". Track 5 is reserved for the most emotional song on a Taylor album, so you may be thinking how or why is this about Joe if this album was essentially a love letter to him. While he may not be the center of this song, which details her insecurities around love ("who could ever leave me darling? but who could stay?"), he is referenced in it and how she just wants to hold on to him forever.

I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost
The room is on fire, invisible smoke
And all of my heroes die all alone
Help me hold onto you

"Cruel Summer" is an absolute fan-favorite track. Seriously you haven't lived as a Taylor Swift fan if you haven't screamed the bridge to this song at the Era's Tour. The song is about before her and Joe were dating but how much she wanted to be with him.

Devils roll the dice, angels roll their eyes
What doesn't kill me makes me want you more

I'm drunk in the back of the car
And I cried like a baby coming home from the bar (oh)
Said, "I'm fine, " but it wasn't true
I don't wanna keep secrets just to keep you
And I snuck in through the garden gate
Every night that summer just to seal my fate (oh)
And I screamed for whatever it's worth
"I love you, " ain't that the worst thing you ever heard?
He looks up grinning like a devil

There is no denying this song is about Joe, who is British. "You know I love a London Boy" Swift sings in this tribute to Alwyn and confirming the relationship.

You know I love a London boy
I enjoy walking Camden Market in the afternoon
He likes my American smile
Like a child when our eyes meet, darling, I fancy you
Took me back to Highgate, met all of his best mates
So I guess all the rumors are true
You know I love a London boy

One of, if not, my personal favorite song from "Lover" this one is hard to listen to now knowing her fear came true. When the pair first met in NYC and began dating Swift was renting a place on Cornelia Street. The home is where the romance began and their love grew. She sings that she is "so terrified of if you ever walk away". But now we know she'll "never walk Cornelia Street again".

And I hope I never lose you, hope it never ends
I'd never walk Cornelia Street again
That's the kind of heartbreak time could never mend
I'd never walk Cornelia Street again

Taylor had fallen for Joe and at this point she "thanks he knows" that she has. She describes how he makes her heart race, and how she want to "know his body like it's mine".

He got that boyish look that I like in a man
I am an architect, I'm drawing up the plans
It's like I'm seventeen, nobody understands
No one understands

"I once believed love would be black and white, but it's golden" Daylight describes the love the couple shared and how it exceeded her expectations. How the love was the "Daylight" in the darkness that had been her previous relationships.

I don't wanna look at anything else now that I saw you
I don't wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you
I've been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night
And now I see daylight, I only see daylight

Taylor released this previously un-released cut off of Lover on Friday, April 17th the day her Era's Tour kicked off in Glendale, AZ. She talks about how thankful she is for all the girls in Alwyn's past and for what they taught him. But that "I love you more".

Your past and mine are parallel lines
Stars all aligned and they intertwined

All of the girls you loved before (ooh)
Made you the one I've fallen for
Every dead-end street
Led you straight to me
Now you're all I need
I'm so thankful for
All of the girls you loved before
But I love you more

Swift dropped Folklore in 2020 after she spent the first few months of quarantine writing. While this album is mainly inspired by stories of other people there are a few tracks about Joe Alwyn. This album also features the first time the pair, unexpectedly, collaborated and wrong songs together.

Every past romance, break up, and decision in the couple's lives led them together. They were meant to be. That's what "Invisible String" is about. It's also relevant to note that in Arlington on the third weekend of Era's Tour shows, Swift switched out Invisible String from the setlist and replaced it with "The 1". Is this a coincidence? Sure it could be. But it also could be related to the split.

Time, curious time
Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs
Were there clues I didn't see?
And isn't it just so pretty to think
All along there was some
Invisible string
Tying you to me?

Peace is another song that to me is just truly heartbreaking knowing what we know now. Taylor knows that whomever she is in a relationship with will always have to deal with the fact that she's Taylor Swift. That the tabloids want to know everything about her. That there a many many things she simply can't do. And in the midst of all of that she wonders if she can ever give someone "Peace".

In this "Folklore" bonus track Taylor talks about wanting to run away to the Lakes District in London and just escaping it all with her muse  (Joe).

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

Taylor's most recent album, released in 2022, features several songs about Joe.

Lavender Haze references how this relationship is theirs. That people think they should be married, and dodging all the tabloid rumors about their relationship. (And this is the one string of hope I'm holding onto when it comes to this relationship).

Swift describes this song best by saying, "The song is about falling in love with someone at the same time as they're falling in love with you, in this sort of in this cataclysmic, faded moment where you realize someone feels exactly the same way that you feel, at the same moment, And you're kind of looking around going, "Wait, is this real? Is this a dream? Is this for real? Is it really happening? Kinda like it would be if you were to see snow falling on a beach."

This scene feels like what I once saw on a screen
I searched aurora borealis green
I've never seen someone lit from within
Blurring out my periphery
My smile is like I won a contest
And to hide that would be so dishonest
And it's fine to fake it 'til you make it
'Til you do, 'til it's true

Mastermind is about how once Taylor saw Joe she was going to stop at nothing to be with him.

Another song in which Taylor references her fear of losing this love. She admits if the pair were to break up "I'll be getting over you my whole life". These songs in particular as some of the most difficult to listen to now, knowing how much feared the here and now.

It only hurts this much right now
Was what I was thinking the whole time
Breathe in, breathe through
Breathe deep, breathe out
I'll be getting over you my whole life
You know how scared I am of elevators
Never trust it if it rises fast
It can't last

Sweet Nothing was written by the Swift and Alwyn (who uses the pseudonym William Bowrey).

They said the end is coming
Everyone's up to something
I find myself running home to your sweet nothings
Outside, they're push and shoving
You're in the kitchen humming
All that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing