Song Breakdown: ivy
âHowâs one to know? Iâd meet you where the spirit meets the bones in a faith forgotten landâ
The first sentence indicates that this love was unexpected, that the narrator didnât intend for this, and yet, sheâs fallen in love anyway. She reveals that sheâs been meeting with her lover in a graveyard, the place where the âspirit meets the bonesâ, in a land where faith is forgotten, because the dead have no faith anymore, no thoughts, no more consciousness. Thereâs also the possibility that the speaker is suggesting people lose their faith when they die, because they find thereâs nothing waiting for them, because god didnât answer their prayers and let them live, or both. The line is rich with other meanings too; the spirit, what animates the speaker and gives her a reason to live for (as will be referenced by the line âIâd live and die for moments that we stoleâ later on), is given by meeting her lover, sheâs more than just a collection of bones, someone hollowly living their life, it distinguishes her from the corpses surrounding them. It may even be an especially poetic metaphor for sex. As for the âfaith forgottenâ, she can finally be with her lover, another woman, because theyâve found a place without the oppressive controlling faith that surrounds them, theyâre alone with only the dead. They forget their own faith, forget that when theyâre in the ground they may suffer in hell.
âIn from the snow, your touch brought forth an incandescent glow, tarnished but so grandâ
Taylor introduces a contrast between the cold of the snow and the incandescence, the great heat, of their love, which offers a shelter from the oppressive cold. Does the cold symbolize the harsh conditions throughout history stamping out queer love? Maybe, maybe not. The cold may also reference the cold of the dead that surround them, a juxtaposition to their warm, living love, or be calling the speakerâs husband cold and lifeless. The use of the word âincandescentâ is interesting, because incandescent means both glowing with great heat and glowing from something powered within, e.g. the incandescent lightbulb, the simple touch lights up the speaker from within (tying to âIâve never seen someone lit from withinâ in Snow On The Beach), introduces the spirit back into the bones. This glow is tarnished, which may be because theyâre forced to love in secrecy and fear, or because the two lovers still hold on to some homophobic beliefs that what theyâre doing is sinful, and do it anyway, because despite it all, the glow is too grand, so much better than the cold that surrounds them.
âAnd the old widow goes to the stone everyday, but I donât, I just sit here and wait, grieving for the livingâ
Their only company in this graveyard is the old widow, who perhaps has lost her faith too, now that the person she cared enough about to visit their grave everyday is gone. Itâs also possible that sheâs not visiting the grave of her husband, because it isnât specified, and that being widowed has actually given her the freedom to visit the grave of her true love, a parallel to the two in the song. The speaker is not grieving the dead, sheâs in the throes of life, waiting for her lover, grieving the situation sheâs found herself in. She may be grieving herself, for sheâs not truly alive when sheâs not with her lover, she has no spirit in her bones. Or, if she is still clinging onto homophobic beliefs, she may be grieving the possibility of going to hell.
âOh, goddamn, my pain fits in the palm of your freezing hand, taking mine but itâs been promised to anotherâ
The use of the word âgoddamnâ may just be something used by Swift to put more emphasis on this line, but it may also be the speakerâs fears of being damned by god (we later see her refer to this relationship as a magnificent curse), which was a prevalent fear in bygone eras, which itâs suggested the song takes place in, by the antique diction. The song emphasizes the pain of the narratorâs life, which is relieved by her loverâs touch, her hand, despite the cold. The hand is freezing, but not frozen, the cold is threatening to take over but does not have full control yet, kept back by the incandescent glow. It establishes that despite their relationship, the speaker is with someone else, not willingly, as is implied by the fact that itâs been promised, likely not by the speaker.
âOh, I canât stop you putting roots in my dreamland, my house of stone, your ivy grows, and now Iâm covered in youâ
Itâs implied that the speaker has tried to stop this relationship, tried to stop her attraction, but her lover always finds a way back into the speakerâs mind, into her dreams, maybe into her fantasy of the future, her âdreamlandâ. The speaker is a house of stone, cold, barren, wintery, but her lover is ivy, growing in spite of the cold, a sign of life. Against her best efforts, her and her lover and intertwined (possibly another poetic metaphor for sex).
âI wish to know the fatal flaw that makes you long to be magnificently cursedâ
The speaker doesnât understand why her lover is willing to risk all this; she thinks of it as a fatal flaw. This may because of the the difficulty of their situation, or because she thinks thereâs something wrong with their queer desires. This flaw is fatal, it may result in their deaths if theyâre caught, because in certain eras, infidelity and especially queer infidelity was punishable by death. Their relationship is magnificent, but itâs a curse, too, one that may lead to them burning in hell. And yet, her lover still longs for her.
âHeâs in the room, your opal eyes are all I wish to see, he wants whatâs only yoursâ
The speakerâs husband is in the room, but he still canât see their love, because romantic love between two women was unthinkable in many eras of history, as opposed to the more well known bogeyman of gay men. Heâs in the room, but the speaker can barely bear to pretend, she wants the eyes of her lover, opal eyesâopal is a gem that under light often reflects rainbow colors. She wishes to see her loverâs eyes, but the word âwishesâ implies that the want is not fulfilled, that sheâs instead having to look at her husband. He wants her, and he doesnât know that inside her dreamland, she belongs to another.
âClover blooms in the field, spring breaks loose, the time is near, what would he do if he found us out?â
The cold winter is finally ending, homophobia is being pushed back as queer people, as spring, is breaking loose, breaking free. Other plants, less hardy than ivy, like clover (a traditionally masculine symbol, possibly representing queer men?) are flourishing, and it gives hope that the time to break free, to come out, may be near. The clover represents good luck too, good fortune for them, but then the narrator interrupts the line with her fears of her husband discovering them. The cold may have abated, but it isnât summer yet (interesting given all the connections in Taylorâs discography between summer and queerness).
âCrescent moon, coast is clear, spring breaks loose, but so does fear, heâs gonna burn this house to the groundâ
Theyâre in the phase of the crescent moon, the beginnings of something new after the death of the marriage, though it hasnât been fully realized yet. Theyâre still sneaking around (âcoast is clearâ), and it repeats the themes of the previous line, through the juxtaposition of the freedom of spring and the lingering fear: the speaker fears her husband burning them to the ground. Itâs unclear how threatening this would really be, though, sheâs said her house is made of stone, it all depends on how deep the roots of her loverâs ivy go in her dreamland; the deeper the roots of a plant, the easier it is to regrow after fire.
âHowâs one to know? Iâd live and die for moments that we stole on begged and borrowed timeâ
As this relationship has gone on, the narrator has begun to realize, unexpectedly, that sheâs willing to die for this relationship, for the stolen moments, because theyâre all sheâs living for, the spirit, the incandescent glow inside her. Itâs a contrast between the strength of the relationship and the reality that everything theyâve built is begged and borrowed.
âSo tell me to run, or dare to sit and watch what weâve become, and drink my husbandâs wineâ
The speaker has transitioned in the song from fear to defiance, she embraces stealing from her husband, drinking his win, braving the risks to be together. Sheâs giving her lover a choice, letting her cut it off, to runâeither from the relationship, or running away togetherâor staying and fighting, and sheâs daring her lover to be brave.
âSo yeah, itâs a fire, itâs a goddamn blaze in the dark, and you started it, you started itâ
The bridge is a follow up to the third blaze, a response, theyâve chosen to stay and fight. The incandescent glow in the freezing cold has become a blaze in the dark, maybe itâs damned by god, but they feed it anyway. The speakerâs husband may want to burn them down, but they started the fire, they wielded what theyâd been building inside themselves the whole winter long.
âSo yeah, itâs war, itâs the goddamn fight of our lives, and you started it, you started itâ
No longer is their relationship quietly sneaking around, bending the rules of the regime, but a revolutionary war for freedom. As Taylor said in her song Change, âThe battle was long, itâs the fight of our lives, but weâll stand up champions tonightâ, âThese walls that they put up to hold us back will fall downâ. Theyâre the ones in control of this fight, and eventually, theyâll win.
âOh, I canât stop you putting roots in my dreamland, my house of stone, your ivy grows, and now Iâm covered in you, in you, now Iâm covered in you, in youâ
The final chorus is different from the initial one, no longer are they freezing, no longer is the speakerâs hand promised to another, the only thing left is being covered in her loverâs ivy. The roots in her dreamland were deep enough to survive the fire, and as the song ends, she repeats that sheâs still covered, still covered, still covered in her lover, after the Great War.
