Words: Serena Barnascone

Bonus tracks on albums feel like a little treat right at the very end, an insight into the world the artist is trying to create. One of my favourite bonus tracks is ‘the lakes’ by Taylor Swift, which is found at the end of her 2020 album ‘folklore’. This album, her eighth, was a thematic and musical switch from the shiny synth-pop of 2019’s Lover, and with The National’s Aaron Dessner in her team, Swift made a dash for indie-folk introspection, the 18^th century Romanticism movement and the stunning visual world of the Lake District mountain area in northwest England. Swift would say of the work, which was created during the Covid pandemic: “I may not be able to go to the Lakes right now, or to go anywhere, but I’m going there in my head.”

This song feels like a further development of the escapism and ethereal nature of folklore and it builds on the tracks such as ‘the last great american dynasty’, which explore real-world stories and narratives through music. 

‘the lakes’ is a reflective poem criticising the intrusiveness of fame while exploring the extensive consumerism of social media, romanticising running away to the Lake District and escaping into nature. The reflective nature of this song is emphasised by the first line, which is one of my favourites: ‘Is it romantic how all my elegies eulogise me?’. Elegies are reflective poems themselves, typically laments to the dead; one could infer that Swift is speaking of her own songs in this line, reflecting on how her songs praise her. Swift continues to speak of ‘hunters with cellphones’, wanting to escape them to a slower life. 

In the chorus, Swift employs older language, using phrases such as ‘my beloved’, reflecting the traditional lake poets such as Wordsworth and Keats. This creates a world in which the listener can hear the song and takes people to a slower time without social media and the internet, and additionally allows readers and those who love romantic poetry to exist inside a song that they can feel is building a world for them. 

“In the chorus, Swift employs older language, using phrases such as ‘my beloved’, reflecting the traditional lake poets such as Wordsworth and Keats.“

Incidentally, Swift references Wordsworth in a clever play on words, saying: ‘I’ve come too far to watch some namedropping sleaze/Tell me, what are my words worth’. This is by far one of my favourite lines in the song, as it feels like an easter egg that you wouldn’t realise was there if you didn’t know about the Lake Poets, and feels like a hidden secret just for those who know, similar to the nature of the bonus track in general.

Another hidden word play is the use of ‘overburrowed’ in ‘What should be over burrowed under my skin / In heart-stopping waves of hurt’. This can be interpreted as two separate words in context with the rest of the line or as one word meaning to dig or tunnel deeply into something and hide yourself from something you don’t want to face, which arguably is the main focus of the entire song – hiding oneself from the outside world in a fantastical world where the Lakes Poets existed. 

Swift uses so many beautiful words throughout the track, such as ‘calamitous love and insurmountable grief’ and ‘auroras and sad prose’. These paint such a vivid, beautiful picture, especially when referencing things like wanting to watch ‘wisteria grow right over [her] bare feet’,  creating one of the most clear visual images I have experienced in music, as this is often reserved for literature and poetry. ‘the lakes’ is by far one of my favourite tracks on the ‘folklore’ album, alongside ‘the last great american dynasty’, and I would recommend this track to anyone who loves poetry and literature, or who might be inspired to discover more about the Lakes Poets.