Taylor Swift has really been leaning into the poetic side of her music lately. So much so that she even named her forthcoming album The Tortured Poets Department, in fact. Could there be a nod to one of Swift’s incredibly famous literary ancestors in this new title? Because it turns out, the singer is distantly related to one of the original tortured poets, and as soon as we found out it just all made so much sense to us.
Ancestry revealed on Monday that Swift is distantly related to none other than beloved poet Emily Dickinson, according to a report from TODAY. “Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th century English immigrant (Swift’s 9th great-grandfather and Dickinson’s 6th great-grandfather who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut),” Ancestry shared with TODAY. “Taylor Swift’s ancestors remained in Connecticut for six generations until her part of the family eventually settled in northwestern Pennsylvania, where they married into the Swift family line.”
Emily Dickinson is widely considered to be one of the most important poets of her time and challenged both cultural and literary norms with her work. She was considered an eccentric in her brief lifetime (she died at 26 years old), living at her home in Amherst, Massachusetts, never married, and was known to be a stout-hearted friend who encouraged others to follow their passions.
In so many ways, two peas in a pod.
It’s perfectly possible that Swift already knew, or even sensed, that she might be distantly related to Emily Dickinson. She did, after all, reference that late poet in the 2022 Nashville Songwriters Association International while accepting her songwriter-artist of the decade award. “If my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson’s great-grandmother while sewing a lace curtain, that’s me writing in the Quill genre,” she said at the time. And of course, Swifties have long speculated that her Evermore album was inspired by Dickinson as well, leaning on clues like the fact that the album was released on Dickinson’s birthday, Dec. 10, 2020, and the album title could well be in reference to the last line of the poem One Sister have I in Our House, which reads, “From out the wide night’s numbers — Sue forevermore!”
Swift’s forthcoming album, The Tortured Poets Department, is set to be released on April 19, and we can only hope that there is a nod or two to her famous ancestor on that album.
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