Once you’ve survived your first love and heartbreak, all you’re left with is yourself. If you are looking for a song that perfectly describes this feeling, look no further than “This Love” from Taylor Swift’s hit album “1989.” Swift initially wrote the song’s beginning as a short poem in her journal in 2012 after which she started singing the verse in her head and turned it into a piece.
“This Love” catches and presents the feeling of a failed relationship and the maturity which comes along with it. Although the song has a nostalgic and enchanting melody, the message is about loving and losing. The song is about a love that keeps leaving and coming back.
At the start of the song, the listeners hear the influence of the song’s poetic origination as the lyrics emerge as metaphors to describe the challenging feelings that come with falling in love. “Clear blue waters” represent the beginning of love, where one is in a complete state of peace; the water resembles the calm, the peaceful and the beauty of that feeling.
However, Swift then compares her love to the high and low tides the ocean experiences, which convey the uncertainty of relationships – just as fast as the waves come crashing in, they can also sweep you back out. She acknowledges that not every romance is peaceful.
The love that Swift thinks will last forever eventually ends and she writes about the struggles she experiences as she tries to move on. The more she tries to run away from facing these feelings, the more the memories of her past love which was like a “lantern, burning,” follow her. However, the song ends positively as the love she thought was dead comes back “alive from the dead.”
In this song, Swift’s feelings towards love deeply contrast with her 2012 track “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together,” the lead single of her Red album. She understands the complexity of relationships and the growth that comes from them. “This Love,” however, approached relationships from a different perspective, promising hope in the rekindling of old loves.
