Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ is here. Is it poetry? This is what experts say

By MARIA SHERMAN
AP Music Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — On Friday, Taylor Swift released her 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department.” But just how poetic is it? Is it even possible to close read lyrics like poems, divorced from their musical source material? The Associated Press asked four experts to give a close reading of the lead single “Fortnight,” featuring Post Malone. They found that while songwriting and poems are different mediums, Swift regularly uses poetic devices such as metaphor, enjambed lines, rhyme and unexpected rhythm. She also uses literary paradigms to think about truth, says Professor Elizabeth Scala, who teaches a course on Swift’s songbook at the University of Texas at Austin.