Taylor Swift! The 2,600-year-old history of 'tortured' poets
Taylor Swift's latest album, "The Tortured Poets Department," follows a tradition dating back to ancient Greece, where artists used their work as a form of catharsis. Swift herself has described the album as a "lifeline" during a show in Melbourne, emphasizing how songwriting helped her navigate through challenging times. Rolling Stone's review suggests that this album is her most personal yet.
Rumors surrounding the album suggest that it delves into the end of her six-year relationship with actor Joe Alwyn, her brief involvement with The 1975 singer Matty Healy, and her current romance with American footballer Travis Kelce. Themes of depression, betrayal, and a broken engagement are hinted at throughout the album.
Discussions regarding the autobiographical elements of art have long surrounded significant works of literature, and some reactions to Swift's music may reflect broader issues within our culture, particularly concerning misogyny, rather than solely evaluating her songwriting abilities.
Truth or fiction?
Sappho, an Ancient Greek lyric poet from approximately 2,600 years ago, is often regarded as the quintessential tortured poet. Despite only fragments of her work surviving, her compositions, often set to music, were immensely popular in antiquity, earning her the nickname "the 10th muse." Among the surviving fragments are poignant reflections on romantic entanglements with both men and women. One such fragment expresses profound despair:
"I simply want to be dead.
Weeping she left me
with many tears and said this:
Oh how badly things have turned out for us.
Sappho, I swear, against my will I leave you."
While it remains uncertain whether these verses were inspired by personal experiences, historical accounts suggest that many ancient readers interpreted them as autobiographical. This ambiguity hasn't diminished her reputation as an emblematic poet of love and longing. Legend has it that she met a tragic end, purportedly leaping from a cliff after being rejected by her beloved—a tale that has inspired countless artistic interpretations throughout the ages.
Similar speculation surrounds the poetry of Petrarch (1304-1374), particularly his Canzoniere (songbook), which chronicles his enduring anguish over his unrequited love for a woman named Laura spanning four decades.
Upon first laying eyes on Laura, Petrarch penned, "Love found me with no armour for the fight/ My eyes an open highway to the heart." While some of Petrarch's contemporaries and subsequent scholars have viewed Laura as a fictional creation, the poet himself vehemently insisted on her existence and the authenticity of his heartache. In a letter to his friend Giacomo Colonna, Petrarch expressed his wish that Laura had indeed been a product of his imagination rather than a source of genuine torment.
Speculation also abounds regarding the identity of the individuals depicted in Shakespeare's sonnets, particularly in the "dark lady" and "fair youth" sequences. The absence of surviving correspondence from Shakespeare has fueled endless conjecture about the potential identities of these figures and the nature of their relationships with the Bard.
'Thinly disguised' facts
The advent of mass media in the 20th and 21st centuries has intensified speculation about the sources of inspiration for modern writers.
Bob Dylan vehemently denied drawing from his personal life experiences. Despite widespread assumptions that his 1975 album Blood on the Tracks laid bare the unraveling of his marriage to Sara Lownds, Dylan refuted the notion of writing confessional songs. He likened it to the perception that Laurence Olivier embodied Hamlet. However, in subsequent interviews, Dylan admitted that some emotional turmoil may have seeped into his lyrics, while a former girlfriend claimed that the song "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go" was about their relationship during that period. Conversely, artists like Joni Mitchell were more forthcoming about the autobiographical nature of their work. Mitchell famously described feeling exposed, akin to a cellophane wrapper on a pack of cigarettes, during the creation of her album Blue (1971). She acknowledged having no secrets from the world, allowing her music to reflect her vulnerability and authenticity.
However, not all critics embrace this approach, often citing a perceived tension between authenticity and artistic merit. Some argue that an excessive reliance on personal experience diminishes the writer's creative prowess. These criticisms, which are sometimes directed more harshly at women than men, may carry undertones of sexism.
In an essay discussing her book Heartburn, published in 1983, Nora Ephron highlighted a double standard in literary criticism regarding works by women. Ephron's novel was inspired by her own experiences, particularly her former husband Carl Bernstein's affair with the wife of a British diplomat while Ephron was pregnant with their second child. She observed that the phrase "thinly disguised" is often applied to books authored by women. Ephron pointed out that male authors like Philip Roth and John Updike frequently mined their personal lives and marriages for material in their works, yet they were not subjected to the same scrutiny.
Analyzing Taylor Swift's "The Tortured Poets Department"
Taylor Swift's latest album, "The Tortured Poets Department," is believed to follow the emotional trajectory of the "five stages of grief," a concept popularized by psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. Swift's preparation for the album involved compiling playlists representing each stage, evident in the thematic content of the songs, ranging from denial to acceptance.
Despite the lyrical themes of confinement and claustrophobia, Swift infuses her heartache with humor and self-awareness, as seen in tracks like "My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys." While there's a hint of irony in her reference to "tortured poets," Swift also incorporates literary allusions that merit serious consideration, such as biblical imagery and references to figures like Cassandra and Sisyphus. One standout track, "The Prophecy," bears resemblance to Sappho's "Ode to Aphrodite," suggesting a timeless expression of genuine emotion.
The idea of Swift's poetry being analyzed by future scholars adds an amusing and reassuring layer, envisioning a lasting legacy beyond contemporary commentary on her personal life.
