#augustea

Something has been bugging me about the resolution to the folklore love triangle.

We know that Augustine doesn't end up with James, but that Taylor does think she deserves to find love in the end. What if she does?

We also don't know who Dorothea's narrator/lover is, and it seems strange to me that Taylor would leave this character completely unnamed, a complete mystery.

But who is the only other character implied to have a happy ending but who's future is left mysteriously open-ended? Augustine.

Disclaimer, I'm aware that evermore is a collection of stories independent from folklore. However, since Taylor has confirmed Dorothea and Augustine attend the same school, I'm assuming they must have known each other somehow. I'll also be explaining how Dorothea's songs from evermore and the love triangle songs from folklore are intertwined.

Buckle up because this is a long one. But it is color coded! And gay! So there's that.

Here's the evidence I've compiled for each song:

Dorothea

damn, Dorothea They all wanna be ya But are you still the same soul I met under the bleachers?

We know that this song is about a high school relationship (and likely ongoing after graduation), meaning it's fully possible for it to be from Augustine's perspective, as her fling with James only lasted for one summer.

Skipping the prom Just to piss off your mom And her pageant schemes

This line implies some sort of disapproval from Dorothea's mom of their relationship, as well as the fact that they couldn't or didn't want to go to prom together. These lines along with the meeting "under the bleachers" adds to the forbidden romance themes that definitely have queer undertones to me. This is also one of the only described relationships that walks the line between romance and friendship, adding to the queercoding.

The 1

Roaring 20s, tossing pennies in the pool And if my wishes came true It would've been you

I feel that the general consensus is that this song is about James. However, couldn't be about Betty and James, since Taylor has explained that they do stay together.

What's more, the "roaring 20's" seems incredibly inconsistent with this theory. It could mean time period, but the phrase refers to the 1920s, which doesn't make sense considering lyrics like "meet some woman on the internet." If it refers to age, it has to be about Dorothea and Augustine, since James and Augustine got together and broke up as teenagers.

Since the tone perfectly matches the mournful longing tone of the previously mentioned song, dorothea; the 1 could be a role reversal. A perspective switch of a jaded Dorothea singing about Augustine after having to leave. Here are some lyrical parallels that drive me insane:

The 1: I guess you never know, you never know

Dorothea: Oh, I guess I'll never know

The 1: I have this dream you're doing cool shit Having adventures on your own

Dorothea: You got shiny friends since you left town A tiny screen's the only place I see you now

'Tis the Damn Season

We could call it even You could call me babe for the weekend

There's so much gay in this song I'm not even sure where to start.

First off, he idea of calling their friend "babe" for the weekend has undeniably sapphic undertones to me. I mean, think about it. Straight crushes doing something like that would be seen as undeniably romantic, with none of the ambiguity and tension from the first Dorothea song. Girl friends calling each other by pet names is something that has probably been the bane of every sapphic's existence at some point. Myself included, obviously.

'Tis the damn season Write this down I'm stayin' at my parents' house

Something about taking very traditional values like the holidays, and cursing them, keeps so well with the theme of small town gays.

As for the following two lines, I don't see these being relevant to the song if not as a warning. We've already unpacked how it's very likely Dorothea's parents don't approve of her close relationship with Augustine. Later in the song, these lines add to that theme:

The holidays linger like bad perfume You can run, but only so far I escaped it too, remember how you watched me leave

Back to the chrous, this interpretation is only exacerbated with the next line:

And the road not taken looks real good now

This is line of the biggest clues to me, and for a couple of reasons. I think it's fairly apparent that the road not taken is an analogy used to describe unconventionality, and it is very often used to reference queerness in that sense. This coincides perfectly with Augustine and Dorothea's secret relationship and how others disapprove.

But this line also serves as more evidence that Augustine and Dorotheas songs are intrinsically linked. This song is very clearly sung from Dorothea's perspective. And in a song very clearly sung from Augustine's perspective, this line shows up.

Illicit Affairs: Take the road less traveled by

To me, this shows the contrast between Augustine leaving her relationship with James to entering (and re-entering) her relationship with Dorothea. James casts Augustine off to take the road by herself, to hide from society's disapproving glare. But Dorothea chooses takes that road with Augustine. Their relationship has Augustine hiding her love once again, but this time she's not alone.

There's an ache in you put there by the ache in me

The central theme in their relationship I've just explained is also very present in this line, as it is in the following song.

Exile

You're not my homeland anymore So what am I defending now? You were my town Now I'm in exile, seein' you out

This song is about Dorothea and Augustine's relationship coming to an end when Dorothea has to leave their town to pursue her dreams. While this song is sung from the perspective of two characters, assumedly representing Dorothea and Augustine, I'll focus mainly on one. From Augustine's perspective, we see her suffer through the same heartbreak that she did when her secret relationship with James came to an end, hence the lines:

I think I've seen this film before And I didn't like the ending

This song proves to me that Dorothea and the folklore love triangle must be connected, there's no denying that the lyrical parallels between Dorothea's songs and exile are unmistakable.

Exile: To pack us up and leave me with it

'Tis the Damn Season: To leave the warmest bed I've ever known

Exile: You're not my homeland anymore / You were my town

'Tis the Damn Season: It always leads to you in my hometown

Exile: Like he's just your understudy

Dorothea: And you'll go on with the show

Exile: Second, third, and hundredth chances

Dorothea: It's never too late to come back to my side

Exile: Those eyes add insult to injury

Dorothea: The stars in your eyes shined brighter in Tupelo

Exile: You didn't even hear me out

'Tis the Damn Season: Now I'm missing your smile, hear me out

Since dorothea and 'tis the damn season take place after exile, this song is here to establish the cracks that broke down their relationship in the past and how they are mended in later songs.

Gold Rush

What must it be like to grow up that beautiful? With your hair falling into place like dominoes My mind turns your life into folklore I can't dare to dream about you anymore

I'll say it, this might be the most queercoded song on the album. The theme of envious attraction, being unable to tell if you want someone or want to be them, and having to hide from your feelings all the while because you know you can never truly have a future with them... I cannot be the only one who sees it.

To me, this is about when Augustine first starts developing feelings for Dorothea. I've seen people argue that if this is connected to the folklore love triangle, that it must be Augustine singing about James. However, the only connection the evermore songs have to folklore Taylor has specified is the character of Dorothea, so it doesn't make sense for there to be an evermore track about two characters from folklore.

I don't like anticipating my face in a red flush I don't like that anyone would die to feel your touch Everybody wants you Everybody wonders what it would be like to love you

The love interest being this attractive character that everyone is drawn to makes perfect sense for Dorothea, as we know she eventually moves to Los Angeles and becomes a star.

Not only must this song be about Dorothea, but being the only song that directly references folklore heavily implies that is must be connected to one of its characters in some way, namely Augustine.

I see me padding 'cross your wooden floors With my Eagles t-shirt hanging from the door At dinner parties I call you out on your contrarian shit And the coastal town we wandered 'round had never seen a love as pure as it And then it fades into the gray of my day old tea 'Cause you know it could never be

The most curious part of the song is that when the narrator finally allows herself to imagine a future with the person she loves, she quickly remind herself that "it could never be," and that the object of her affections knows this as well.

All that the narrator, Augustine, wants is to have a comfortable and happy future with Dorothea, but she cannot bring herself to imagine the two of them ever finding this coastal town that sees their love as "pure." This hopeless and resigned tone about her assumedly unrequited love and unattainable dreams is exacerbated in the final chorus when the lyrics change to "the coastal town we never found will never see a love as pure as it."

Also, I feel the need to point out a few lyrical parallels because:

Gold Rush: Walk past, quick brush

'Tis the Damn Season: It's the kind of cold, fogs up windshield glass But I felt it when I passed you

Gold Rush: My mind turns your life into folklore I can't dare to dream about you anymore

Dorothea: I have this dream you're doing cool shit Having adventures on your own

Gold Rush: And the coastal town we wandered 'round 

'Tis the Damn Season: And it always leads to you in my hometown

Invisible String

Green was the color of the grass Where I used to read at Centennial Park I used to think I would meet somebody there

Anddd we're at the final song! Fittingly, I believe this song is from the perspective of Dorothea after she and Augustine reunite, wrapping up their story with a happy ending.

And in true full-circle Taylor Swift fashion, their story ends the same way it starts, with Centennial Park. If you don't recall, dorothea starts with these lines:

Dorothea: Hey Dorothea, do you ever stop and think about me? When we were younger, down in the park

And this isn't the only recall to Dorothea's evermore songs. Almost every line in this song references a line in one of the previous songs that I've analyzed!

Teal was the color of your shirt When you were sixteen at the yogurt shop

Remember the "eagles t-shirt" from gold rush? Taylor confirmed this was a deliberate reference to the Philadelphia eagles, who's team color is teal. Again, this song could only be about dorothea's narrator, Augustine, as gold rush is from evermore while invisible string is from folklore, and Dorothea is the sole connection between the two albums.

Gave me no compasses, gave me no signs Were there clues I didn't see?

This is a direct parallel to exile, where Dorothea laments over how Augustine "never gave a warning sign." But now the tone has shifted, and she readily admits that maybe she had missed the signs all along, and looks back on the nature of their relationship as fateful rather than chaotic.

All along there was some Invisible string Tying you to me

Sound familiar? Even though Dorothea has tried to leave in the past, time and time again, it always leads back to Augustine and their hometown.

On your first trip to LA You ate at my favorite spot for dinner

In the end, it seems like Dorothea does end up leaving back to LA, like she says at the end of 'tis the damn season. But this line implies that the leaving wasn't necessarily marking a bad ending to their relationship. It implies that Augustine comes with her, and they finally get that coastal town they had always wanted but never thought they could have. Outside of the pressure of their small town, they can finally host their dinner parties and voice their contrarian bullshit.

Bold was the waitress on our three year trip Getting lunch down by the lakes She said I looked like an American singer

To me, this line solidifies the idea that this folklore song is about Dorothea. No other character in either of the albums is implied to be famous and have a performance career, which narrows the possibilities to just about one person. And this "three year trip" makes perfect sense for Dorothea, who Augustine says never liked the stuffiness of their hometown.

Chains around my demons, wool to brave the seasons One single thread of gold tied me to you

"Wool to brave the seasons" seems to me like a reference to not only 'tis the damn season, but the album cover of evermore as well.

The color of the invisible string that ties the two together being gold also seems to be a reference to gold rush. The East Asian folk myth the song is based off of describes a red string, not a gold one. So if the color were to be changed, it would have to have been very deliberate. And this theory is only reinforced with the next line:

Gold was the color of the leaves When I showed you around Centennial Park Hell was the journey but it brought me heaven

Another reference to gold, and another reference to Centennial Park. The description paints a picture of the so called gold rush that Augustine had been trying to avoid, being finally embraced by the two of them.

The song offers one final parallel to close this analysis off:

'Tis the Damn Season: But if it's okay with you, it's okay with me

Invisible String: And it's cool, baby, with me

Thank you so much for sticking with me for this whole analysis! I would love to hear what theories or criticisms you guys have as well.