Taylor Swift's 'Cardigan' Lyrics Seem to Be an Intimate Look at Her Three-Year Romance with Joe Alwyn (2024)

Taylor Swift has spent her last two albums writing love songs about her boyfriend of more than three years, Joe Alwyn. Her newest work, folklore, is no exception—although Swift's album blends fictional stories with her real life. Swift's lead single "cardigan" pays homage to a cornerstone New York romance in her life. It could also draw a bit from her time with Alwyn, given the similarities between the lyrics and the songs she has written about him in the past.

Alwyn and Swift first met and fell in love quietly sometime in late 2016 or early 2017. News of their relationship first broke that spring, and Alwyn and Swift have been photographed together in London (Alwyn is from North London) and the Big Apple (Swift has a TriBeCa penthouse there).

Us Weekly reported in March that Swift and Alwyn rely on each other and have discussed getting married. “[They] have talked about their future and marriage,” the source said. “They don’t have a set deadline in place, but they’re very much in love.”

The source continued, “Taylor considers Joe one of the only safe constants in her life. He has always been a huge support and stuck by her.”

Lyrics like "when I felt like I was an old cardigan / Under someone's bed / You put me on and said I was your favorite," could allude to when Swift felt her reputation was ruined in 2016, but privately, she and Alwyn were just beginning to fall in love. As she said of him in Miss Americana, "I was falling in love with someone who had a really wonderful, normal, balanced kind of life," she said. "We decided together we wanted our relationship to be private.”

Lyrics like "To kiss in cars, in downtown bars / Was all we needed / You drew stars around my scars," pay homage to past Alwyn love songs like Reputation's "Delicate." In that song, she sang, "This ain't for the best / My reputation's never been worse, so / You must like me for me… / We can't make / Any promises now, can we, babe? / But you can make me a drink / Dive bar on the East Side, where you at?"

Here, the lyrics to "cardigan", via Genius. You can watch the video for the song below:

Verse 1
Vintage tee, brand new phone
High heels on cobblestones
When you are young, they assume you know nothing
Sequined smile, black lipstick
Sensual politics
When you are young, they assume you know nothing

Pre-Chorus

But I knew you
Dancin' in your Levi's
Drunk under a streetlight, I
I knew you
Hand under my sweatshirt
Baby, kiss it better, I

Chorus

And when I felt like I was an old cardigan
Under someone's bed
You put me on and said I was your favorite

Verse 2
A friend to all is a friend to none
Chase two girls, lose the one
When you are young, they assume you know nothing

Pre-Chorus
But I knew you
Playing hide-and-seek and
Giving me your weekends, I
I knew you
Your heartbeat on the High Line
Once in twenty lifetimes, I

Chorus

And when I felt like I was an old cardigan
Under someone's bed
You put me on and said I was your favorite

Verse 3

To kiss in cars, in downtown bars
Was all we needed
You drew stars around my scars
But now I'm bleedin'
'Cause I knew you
Steppin' on the last train
Marked me like a bloodstain, I
I knew you
Tried to change the ending
Peter losing Wendy, I
I knew you
Leavin' like a father, runnin' like water, I
When you are young they assume you know nothing

Bridge
But I knew you'd linger like a tattoo kiss
I knew you'd haunt all of my what-ifs
The smell of smoke would hang around this long
'Cause I knew everything when I was young
I knew I'd curse you for the longest time
Chasin' shadows in the grocery line
I knew you'd miss me once the thrill expired
And you'd be standin' in my front porch light
And I knew you'd come back to me
You'd come back to me
And you'd come back to me
And you'd come back

Chorus

And when I felt like I was an old cardigan
Under someone's bed
You put me on and said I was your favorite