seven by taylor swift - an interpretation
i joined an university course about the lyrics of taylor swift songs and just want to share my thoughts from close reading and discussion we did during the first class!
the song starts with a direct ask to the listener - picture me in the trees, as a child, carefree and happy and also a bit scared. this is what the narrator felt was the best part of their life ("i hit my peak at seven"). the first verse ends with a question - "are there still beautiful things?", can she ever re-live that part of her life again, be carefree, not anxious? (makes me think of eldest daughter and that yes, she can find that "beautiful life that shimmers that innocent light back like when we were young")
first chorus introduces us to another person in this story - possibly an old childhood friend. the narrator does not even remember their face, but they definitely remember the feeling. playing together during summer, drinking sweet tea, braiding their hair - this is what she remembers and it's what she misses. she still has love for this person and she's not afraid to say it, to pass it down like folk song (which is... this is a folk song, she's telling us she wants to pass down this love). folk songs are also part of the tradition. they're passed down by generations, rarely even written down. the people who created the song or who the song is about might be forgotten, but the feelings are passed down.
there's a big shift in the bridge. the story is not told by the adult anymore, she's a child again! her friend's house being haunted is an observation made by a kid, not an adult. did she hear screams and thought "ghosts!"? did she just felt bad in this house and decided it must be haunted? did her friend tell her she hides from monsters in the closet? a child doesn't really understand but can definitely see that something's wrong. maybe it's her friend's father? the solution to all this is to escape - both physically move out of this house ("come live with me") and escape the reality ("we can be pirates").
one thing that made me think was the difference between first verse when an adult thinks about her childhood and it's all happy and carefree and this bridge when the child remembers the childhood - not the good stuff, but the rather bad stuff - a haunted house and an escape from reality. is this the answer to the first question? maybe the beautiful things never existed in the first place?
the next part is similar to the beginning of the song but instead of trees and swings we are asked to picture the narrator in the weeds. this imaginery alone makes us think of someone who's lost in the weeds. and the next part shows how much she couldn't cope with her friend's haunted house - she wanted to scream ferociously. she could do that as a child whenever she wanted. she could go into weeds and just scream, which didn't solve any problem but made her feel better. she can't do that anymore. is the "iiiii" we hear next her attempt to scream like she used to? does she need to scream again, to go back to when she was a kid and everything was simpler?
the last chorus is a little different than the first one - she's now singing "cross MY heart" instead of "cross YOUR heart" and "OUR love lasts so long" instead of "THE love lasts so long". she also mentions "we'll move to india forever" which is another child fantasy but more realistic this time - she wants her friend to pack and is ready to go wherever to save her.
the last line is a final statement - our love lasts so long! this is the narrator faith in the power of stories and that their love will be forever passed down in songs, in stories, in feelings.
what stuck with me is an interpretation my friend gave - what if the other characer in the song is not her friend from childhood but herself from childhood? so the whole song is a conversation between the adult narrator and her inner child? the bridge might be the inner child warning the adult narrator about her current situation - the child's perspective is that the adult's house is haunted but she can save her older self by being pirates! and in the last chorus the adult tells her childhood self that they can move to india and be happy together. i like this interpretation a lot!
