A perfect album title! Ancestry revealed that Taylor Swift is distantly related to Emily Dickinson. The company that traces family history confirmed that the 19th-century American poet descended from someone in the “Lover” singer’s family tree.
“Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th century English immigrant (Swift’s 9th great-grandfather and Dickinson’s 6th great-grandfather who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut),” Ancestry told Today. “Taylor Swift’s ancestors remained in Connecticut for six generations until her part of the family eventually settled in northwestern Pennsylvania, where they married into the Swift family line.”
Emily Dickinson wrote a plethora of poems in the 1800s but exploded in popularity after her death. “If my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson’s great-grandmother while sewing a lace curtain. That’s me writing in Quill genre.”,” Swift said when she received the Songwriter-Artist of the Decade honor from the Nashville Songwriters Association International in 2022.
Swifties will also remember that evermore was speculated to be inspired by Dickinson’s work. The album was released on Dickinson’s birthday on December 10, and might reference the last word of Dickinson’s poem “One Sister have I in Our House,” which reads, “From out the wide night’s numbers — Sue forevermore!”
Taylor Swift’s new album Tortured Poets Department is set to be released on April 19, 2024. She announced it during the 66th Annual Grammy Awards. “Okay, this is my 13th Grammy, which is my lucky number. I don’t know if I’ve ever told you that. I want to say thank you to the members of the Recording Academy for voting this way, but I know that the way that the Recording Academy voted is a direct reflection of the passion of the fans. So I want to say thank you to the fans by telling you a secret that I have been keeping from you for the last two years.”
To go along with the theme of poetry, she posted a companion poem, and now it’s safe to say that poetry is indeed in her blood. “All’s fair in love and poetry… New album THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT. Out April 19 🤍,” she wrote the caption on Instagram. In the second photo of the slideshow, the text reads out:
“And so I enter into evidenceMy tarnished coat of armsMy muses acquired like bruisesMy talisman and charmsThe tickticktickof love bombsMy veins of pitch black inkAll’s fair in love and poetrySincerely,
The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department”
