Taylor Swift is notorious for writing songs about her past lovers, but her latest album, Evermore, is a little bit different. As CNN notes, the singer-songwriter wrote and recorded these pared-down tracks as a way to explore the concept of "unhappily ever after" marriages.
Ivy is one of three tracks that make up Taylor Swift's "unhappily ever after" trilogy. It was released as part of her surprise album, Evermore, on Dec. 11, just six months after her hit July album, Folklore.
It's a song about infidelity but it's also about how much love you can give without it burning your house down.
In the first verse, Swift describes the narrator as a widow who visits her husband's gravestone every day. She explains that she still has to grieve for him, despite her having married another man.
The narrator then compares her affection to "springtime bursting out in the world" that provides hope for a new beginning. This is accompanied by the lyric, "you're a house of stone" which is a reference to a strong narrator who can protect her home from danger and provide a source of comfort and support for her loved ones.
Fans began to speculate that Taylor's use of "springtime" was a nod to her connection with Dickinson and that her use of "stone" was a nod to the poet's "house of stone." According to ET, showrunner Alena Smith told THR that she wanted to include this track in the Dickinson episode because it had been so well-received by fans, who had been speculating that Taylor was referring to Dickinson in her lyrics.