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

By Melanie Day

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.

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

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.

  • reputation

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

  • Delicate

    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. 

     

  • End Game

    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

    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 ownI made up my mind, I’m better off bein’ aloneWe met a few weeks agoNow you try on callin’ me, baby, like tryin’ on clothes

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

  • Ready For It

    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 hardHe don’t try at all, thoughYounger than my exes but he act like such a man, soI see nothing better, I keep him forever

  • Dress

    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 youMade your mark on me, a golden tattoo

  • Call It What You Want

    “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 daydreamWalkin’ with his head down, I’m the one he’s walkin’ toSo call it what you want, yeah, call it what you want to

  • New Years Day

    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, babeOr if you strike out and you’re crawling home

    Don’t read the last pageBut I stay when it’s hard, or it’s wrong, or we’re making mistakesI want your midnightsBut I’ll be cleaning up bottles with you on New Year’s Day

  • Gorgeous

    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 consequenceOf your magnetic field being a little too strong

    You’re so gorgeousI can’t say anything to your face‘Cause look at your faceAnd I’m so furiousAt you for making me feel this wayBut, what can I say?You’re gorgeous

  • Lover

    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.

  • Lover

    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 handI take this magnetic force of a man to be my loverMy heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blueAll’s well that ends well to end up with youSwear to be overdramatic and true to my loverAnd you’ll save all your dirtiest jokes for meAnd at every table, I’ll save you a seat, lover

  • Paper Rings

    “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, andI hate accidents except when we went from friends to this

    I want to drive away with youI want your complications tooI want your dreary MondaysWrap your arms around me, baby boy

  • The Archer

    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 ghostThe room is on fire, invisible smokeAnd all of my heroes die all aloneHelp me hold onto you

     

  • Cruel Summer

    “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 eyesWhat doesn’t kill me makes me want you more

    I’m drunk in the back of the carAnd I cried like a baby coming home from the bar (oh)Said, “I’m fine, ” but it wasn’t trueI don’t wanna keep secrets just to keep youAnd I snuck in through the garden gateEvery 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

  • London Boy

    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 boyI enjoy walking Camden Market in the afternoonHe likes my American smileLike a child when our eyes meet, darling, I fancy youTook me back to Highgate, met all of his best matesSo I guess all the rumors are trueYou know I love a London boy

  • Cornelia Street

    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 endsI’d never walk Cornelia Street againThat’s the kind of heartbreak time could never mendI’d never walk Cornelia Street again

     

  • I Think He Knows

    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 manI am an architect, I’m drawing up the plansIt’s like I’m seventeen, nobody understandsNo one understands

  • Daylight

    “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 youI don’t wanna think of anything else now that I thought of youI’ve been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark nightAnd now I see daylight, I only see daylight

  • All Of The Girls You Loved Before

    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 linesStars all aligned and they intertwined

    All of the girls you loved before (ooh)Made you the one I’ve fallen forEvery dead-end streetLed you straight to meNow you’re all I needI’m so thankful forAll of the girls you loved beforeBut I love you more

  • Folklore

    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.

  • Invisible String

    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 timeGave me no compasses, gave me no signsWere there clues I didn’t see?And isn’t it just so pretty to thinkAll along there was someInvisible stringTying you to me?

  • Peace

    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”.

    All these people think love’s for showBut I would die for you in secretThe devil’s in the details, but you got a friend in meWould it be enough if I could never give you peace?

  • The Lakes

    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 dieI don’t belong, and my beloved, neither do youThose Windermere peaks look like a perfect place to cryI’m setting off, but not without my muse

  • Midnights

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

  • Lavender Haze

    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).

    I feel the lavender haze creepin’ up on meSurreal, I’m damned if I do give a damn what people sayNo deal, the 1950s shit they want from meI just wanna stay in that lavender haze
    All they keep askin’ me (all they keep askin’ me)Is if I’m gonna be your brideThe only kind of girl they see (only kind of girl they see)Is a one-night or a wife

  • Snow On The Beach

    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 screenI searched aurora borealis greenI’ve never seen someone lit from withinBlurring out my peripheryMy smile is like I won a contestAnd to hide that would be so dishonestAnd it’s fine to fake it ’til you make it‘Til you do, ’til it’s true

  • Mastermind

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

    Once upon a time, the planets and the fatesAnd all the stars alignedYou and I ended up in the same roomAt the same time
    And the touch of a hand lit the fuseOf a chain reaction of countermovesTo assess the equation of youCheckmate, I couldn’t lose

  • Labyrinth

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9XDT5-m7CaM

    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 nowWas what I was thinking the whole timeBreathe in, breathe throughBreathe deep, breathe outI’ll be getting over you my whole lifeYou know how scared I am of elevatorsNever trust it if it rises fastIt can’t last

  • Sweet Nothing

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

    They said the end is comingEveryone’s up to somethingI find myself running home to your sweet nothingsOutside, they’re push and shovingYou’re in the kitchen hummingAll that you ever wanted from me was sweet nothing

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