Taylor Swift
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for TAS Rights ManagementIt turns out Taylor Swift has been a tormented poet since childhood.
After the recent release of her album The Tortured Poets Departmentthe 34-year-old singer’s former elementary school teacher Barbara Kolvek shared with CBS Philly that Swift has had a long relationship with poetry.
“She always wrote poetry, always. Even in music class, even when she shouldn’t,” Kolvek said in an interview published Saturday, April 20.
The retired teacher, who taught Swift from first through fourth grade at Wyndcroft School in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, added that she gave the multi-platinum performer her first singing solo. “’Fast Talk Freddie,’ I think it was called,” Kolvek said.
Don Arnold/TAS24/Getty Images Taylor Swift has kept fans (and Us Weekly staff) busy with the release of 31 songs across two versions of her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department. Swift, 34, released TTPD on Friday, April 19, releasing the first 16 songs at midnight EST. Two hours later, she announced and released The Tortured […]
The couple stayed in touch and exchanged emails with each other over the years. “I feel like I maybe gave her a little push or encouragement to do what she did,” Kolvek said.
Before publication TTPDSwift peppered her work with references to her love of poetry and literature, including an homage to Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” in the song “The Outside” from her self-titled debut album. “I tried to take the road less traveled,” she sings. “But nothing seems to work the first few times, am I right?”
Taylor Swift
Ashok Kumar/TAS24/Getty Images for TAS Rights ManagementIn 2010, Swift revealed that she was inspired by the words of Dr. Seuss was inspired to embark on her own poetry journey.
“A lot of people who are drawn to music are really, really drawn to poetry because the words all have a rhythm and everything fits together just right,” she said during a talk at Scholastic headquarters. “I love poetry because if you do it right, if you put the right rhymes at the right ends of sentences, you can almost make words bounce off the page.”
The “Down Bad” singer added that she entered her poem “Monster in My Closet” in a national poetry competition when she was in fourth grade. Although she didn’t win, the poem still earned a place in the competition. A fan has since managed to dig up Swift’s poem and shared a screenshot of her words about X in 2022.
“There’s a monster in my closet and I don’t know what to do!/Have you ever seen him? / Did he ever throw himself on you?” Swift began. “I wonder what he looks like!/Is he purple with red eyes?”/I wonder what he likes to eat. / What about his size!!”
She concluded, “When he’s nice, I call him ‘Happy.'” / When he’s bad, I call him “Grouch.” / I suspect he’s leaving, but if not… I’ll kick him out!”