For a Fortnight We Analyzed

A Complete Analysis of Taylor Swift's anthology album

Track one Fortnight

Let’s go through Taylor’s anthology line by line and analyze it like the literary masterpiece it is! PLEASE NOTE: While I am a die-hard swiftie and could analyze this and the other songs with names and dates and completely tie it to events in Taylor’s life, here I will be analyzing it as a piece of literature and taking the names and fame out of the analysis.

We open with Fortnight, which is an old English word meaning “fourteen nights.” I will be strictly analyzing the lyrics of this song and not the Music Video which has its own symbolic analysis. The title already tells us that we will be going on a journey over “14 nights” with the narrator. Now, it's important to remember that the use of “fortnight” could be literal in which the tryst was over 14 nights or it could be figurative for a short time spent together.

Now let’s get into the first verse, or stanza, as this is meant to be poetry.

I was supposed to be sent away

But they forgot to come and get me - the first two lines tell us our narrator has been in an unstable mental state, the idea of “being sent away” can reference being sent to a mental health facility, it could also mean she was supposed to be taken from her “home.” when combined with the second line of being forgotten about it can give us the sense that she felt no one cared about her or her mental health.

I was a functioning alcoholic

'Til nobody noticed my new aesthetic - these next two lines continue the idea of her being mentally fragile, that she was drinking to function until she realized no one “noticed” and her being drunk seemed to be a normality to her friends, making her stop as it wasn’t getting anyones attention. Once again this goes along with what appears to so far be a recurring theme of being “unscene” or “not cared about”

All of this to say

I hope you're okay but you're the reason

And no one here's to blame

But what about your quiet treason? - Here our narrator calls out to the person she feels is responsible for her mental downfall. We can infer she isn’t attacking him and has made peace with what they’ve done with the line “I hope youre okay, but youre to blame.” We can also infer that the person the narrator is speaking about maybe didn’t “do anything” in particular, but it was the lack of them doing something that caused her downfall.

And for a fortnight there we were

Forever running to you - The splitting of the lines and how they are broken down in the chorus is really interesting. The ending of the first line with just “we were” can insinuate that she’s saying just that, for two weeks or a short time it was us, we WERE, as in we existed. With the continuation, it could then change from just we were a thing, to we were “forever.” The idea that the two were meant to be together forever, or perhaps that they had been together at another point in time and were now continuing as if they had been forever together.

We can also take this line as just it by itself, "forever running to you" in which she tells us he has always been her fallback. He has been the one she always ran to in her time of need and feels a sense of comfort and belonging with him.

Sometimes ask about the weather - this line makes it seem that while they seemed to have something special, at least to our narrator, it was sometimes casual. Asking someone about the weather is such a mundane thing to do, and not what one thinks about when talking about their lover. We could take this in a few different ways, one: the other person didn’t think this relationship was as special as our narrator did, and he found it to be an everyday normality with nothing to make him feel that it was more than that. Two, we could see this as they were so comfortable together that they found time to spend casually together and enjoyed it.

Now you're in my backyard

Turned into good neighbors- But now the relationship has ended, and clearly the “antagonist” has moved on to the point he feels comfortable acting like “neighborly” to her, as if nothing fatal happened to them, as if he isn’t the reason she had a mental downfall and is still realing from it.

Your wife waters flowers

I want to kill her- More evidence that the antagonist has moved on and now even has a new relationship. As our narrator watches them living their life together as if everything is normal she wants to “kill” the wife, more so she probably wants to “kill” the relationship.

All my mornings are Mondays

Stuck in an endless February - We can interpret this as the narrator stating “everyday I wake up it the worse day of the week stuck in the worse/shortest day of the month.”

I took the miracle move on drug

The effects were temporary- This line can be taken two different ways, she literally took drugs to try and help her mental state improve but found they didn’t work and she had to continually take them to get any relief. Or, this could be symbolic of her having a rebound, or trying to move on with someone new only to be left still feeling she wanted to be with our antagonist.

And I love you, it's ruining my life

I love you, it's ruining my life - Such a simple line but such a powerful thought, sometimes the people we love aren’t goode for us, to the point that we self implode, self-sabotage, “ruin our lives” just to be with someone for the idea of love, and not love itself.

I touched you for only a fortnight

I touched you, but I touched you- These lines reiterate the “short lived” theme that runs through this song. It was “only a fortnight” but it clearly had detrimental and possibly permanent effects on our narrator.

And for a fortnight there we were

Forever running to you

Sometimes ask about the weather

Now you're in my backyard

Turned into good neighbors

Your wife waters flowers

I want to kill her- The lyrics for the second chorus have not changed, so we can insinuate that they have the same meaning, however now that we have more of the story the impact becomes a little heavier.

And for a fortnight there we were

Together running to you- Here we get a slight change in lyrics, it goes from them being foreve to just together. Here we start to see our narrator switching gears, realizing that perhaps their “fortnight” wasn’t as special as she originally thought.

Sometimes come and tug my sweater- Shows the antagonist is again very friendly with her and feels that there is nothing wrong between them, no animosity to be had. It can also start to lead to the idea that the antagonist is becoming more intimate with her again and is maybe thinking about wanting her back, which is made more prominant by the end of the song.

Now you're at the mailbox

Turned into good neighbors

My husband is cheating

I want to kill him- Another change in the chorus further supports the idea that she is starting to shift the blame from the antagonist to the more serious issues in her life, and accepting that it wasn’t all his fault that their relationship ended and she isn’t able to find peace after him.

I love you, it's ruining my life

I love you, it's ruining my life

I touched you for only a fortnight

I touched you, I touched you

I love you, it's ruining my life

I love you, it's ruining my life

I touched you for only a fortnight

I touched you, I touched you - Once again the narrator is emphasizing how she feels the antagonist is the reason for her falling apart; even though it was a short-lived love it was one that clearly haunts her even afterward.

I've been calling ya but you won't pick up

'Nother fortnight lost in America

Move to Florida, buy the car you want

But it won't start up 'til you touch, touch, touch me

I've been calling ya but you won't pick up

Another fortnight lost in America

Move to Florida, buy the car you want

But it won't start up 'til I touch, touch, touch you - These lines are really intriguing and can take on different meanings, especially if you are paying attention to who is actually singing this part as well as the slight lyric change. Now they are Taylor’s writing, and I am assuming Taylor to be the voice of the narrator so they could be interpreted as her own lines. But, the words in the first section are being sung solely by Post Malone who I would assume to be the voice of the antagonist in this story so this could be the antagonist now speaking to our narrator, and also has the lyrics “But it won’t start up ‘til you touch, touch, touch ME” whereas the final line ends with “touch YOU” which seems to push towards the idea that we have a call and response here and our antagonist is starting to call out to her.

Let’s start with the assumption our narrator is saying these final lines. If this story line is being solely told from a first person perspective and this is our narrator then it seems as though she has tried to escapethe torture of being close to him, but can’t fully let go, as she keeps calling fornhim, trying to stay in contact as much as possible while still separating herself physically from him. As florida is the furthest corner in American it can be assumed this is her attempted to get physically as far away as possible without actually leaving “home”. We also get the line “another fortnight lost in america” insinuating our antagonist is not american, or at least not currently living in american and she feels as though she is losing him more and more with each night she spends away from him. She “buys the car he wants” as a reminder of him, but the “car won’t start” because she doesnt have the spark from him that she used to have.

Now, if we were to interpet this line as the antagonist making the statement, we get something a little different. It appears as though the narrator is on the run and now the antagonist is trying to find her. Traveling the states hoping to hear from her, even buys the car she wanted for her in hopes that they will drive away together. It can be argued that it won’t start up until he touches her again, which based on the slight lyric changes seems to be what they now both want.