By Kelsey Kendall
Taylor Swift’s 11th album, “The Tortured Poets Department” was released Friday – a fact her fans probably knew all too well.
The self-dubbed “chairman” of the department gave so many signs of what might be included in her latest studio album, from her announcement at the Grammys earlier this year to a pop-up library in Los Angeles that shared some of the lyrics.
She leans into the idea of the “tortured poet,” an image that has been around for a long time, said Luisa Igloria, Old Dominion University professor and former Poet Laureate of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
Igloria described the “tortured poet” as someone “with a heightened sensibility of feeling.”
Remica Bingham-Risher, director of Quality Enhancement Plan Initiatives, said poets frequently are presented as “tortured,” “agonizing over life’s intricacies and our place in the world,” but that does not necessarily reflect reality.
As a published poet and instructor in Old Dominion’s English department, she sees poets as people who try to take on some of life’s biggest questions.
“Most of the poets I know are buoyant, joyful, observant,” she said. “They appreciate even the tiniest bright things.”
Swift is often noted for her songwriting, though some may only tolerate it. The aesthetic she shared ahead of the album’s release included typewriters, black and white photographs, fountain pens and stained paper with the lyrics “My veins of pitch black ink.” The superstar is certainly still writing pages.
Fans can rarely take Swift’s words for what they are. Igloria said Swift seems to “delight” in dropping hints and clues about her upcoming works, like the statue holding up two fingers at the pop-up library suggesting the surprise double-album drop, and encourages fans to seek out hidden meanings where they can.
“This seems to resemble the method of close reading we encourage for poems and other literary works,” Igloria said.
Music and pop culture often collide with poetry and literature, Bingham-Risher said. In her last book, she included an essay titled, “Girls Loving Beyonce and Their Names.” Swift’s latest album name drops some poets like Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith, and she has referenced poetry in older works, such as the nod to Robert Frost in “Tis the Damn Season.”
Though Bingham-Risher would not consider Swift a poet – just a great songwriter – she thinks it is possible there could be a spike in interest in poetry in the wake of the latest album as people “do a deep dive” into the poetic references in “The Tortured Poets Department.”
Igloria shared a similar thought, though she has not listened to the new album herself.
“If Taylor Swift’s new album gets students talking about poetry and its relationship to all the things in life that makes us feel more and struggle to articulate in language or song, I’d say everyone wins,” she said.