The Tortured Poets Department may be inspired by some of Taylor Swift’s more recent romances, but she seemingly dove into her past on “The Manuscript.”
Swift, 34, dropped her 11th album — along with a bonus version titled The Anthology — on Friday, April 19. Some listeners believe “The Manuscript,” which appears on The Anthology, contains several references to Swift’s brief relationship with her ex John Mayer.
The song’s second verse alludes to a relationship between people with a large age gap. When they dated in 2009, Swift was 19 and Mayer was 32.
“In the age of him, she wished she was thirty / And made coffee every morning in a Frеnch press / Afterwards she only atе kids’ cereal / And couldn’t sleep unless it was in her mother’s bed,” she sings.
Every Song Taylor Swift Has Supposedly Written About Ex John Mayer
Swift later hints at going on to date “boys who were her own age.” The Grammy winner moved on from Mayer with stars such as Connor Kennedy, Harry Styles and Calvin Harris, all of whom were closer in age to her than Mayer.
Listeners have also picked up on lyrics that are reminiscent of her Midnights track “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” similarly rumored to be about Mayer. “She thought about how he said since she was so wise beyond her years / Everything had been above board / She wasn’t sure,” Swift sings.
In “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” released in 2022, Swift refers to Mayer as a “grown man” while calling herself a child. “If you never looked my way / I would’ve stayed on my knees / And I damn sure never would’ve danced with the devil / At nineteen,” she belts.
“The Manuscript” also has a moment of hindsight, with Swift singing, “Lookin’ backwards / Might be the only way to move forward … And at last / She knew what the agony had been for.”
Another Mayer breakup song — “The Story of Us” from Speak Now, in which Swift sings about the story of a relationship that came to a tragic end — may even be referenced in the final verse.
“Now and then I reread the manuscript / But the story isn’t mine anymore,” she concludes.
Ahead of TTPD’s release, Swift dropped five curated Apple Music playlists inspired by the stages of grief: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression and Acceptance. The Anger playlist, named “You Don’t Get to Tell Me About Sad” after a new TTPD lyric, featured several songs rumored to be about Mayer, including “Dear John,” “I Knew You Were Trouble” and “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve.”
Swift, however, clarified in a social media message that she has “nothing to avenge” after TTPD. “[There are] no scores to settle once wounds have healed,” she wrote on Friday. “And upon further reflection, a good number of them turned out to be self-inflicted.”
She continued: “This writer is of the firm belief that our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page. Once we have spoken our saddest story, we can be free of it. And then all that’s left behind is the tortured poetry.”
