Taylor Swift revealed to be related to US poetry great

Mar 05, 2024

She is one of the greatest songwriters of her generation – so it should come as no surprise to hear that Taylor Swift’s way with words appears to be in her blood.

Genealogy company Ancestry has found that the star, who is currently touring the world and made history at the Grammys last month, is related to 19th century American poet Emily Dickinson.

As revealed to NBC’s Today show, a Sky News US affiliate, the two women are sixth cousins, three times removed.

With Swift‘s upcoming album titled The Tortured Poets Department, it seems pretty apt.

“Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th Century English immigrant (Swift’s ninth great-grandfather and Dickinson’s sixth 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.”

‘That’s me writing in the quill genre’

Swift herself has previously referenced the 19th century poet while talking about the different types of lyrics she writes for her songs.

In 2022, the star revealed something “dorky” – that when writing lyrics she separates them in her head into songs written by different pens – quill, fountain pen and glitter gel pen.

“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 in 2022, while receiving the songwriter-artist of the decade award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International.

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One of Dickinson’s poems, titled One Sister Have I In Our House, features the word “forevermore,” similar to the title of Swift’s ninth album, Evermore, which was released in 2020.

Fans at the time were convinced Swift had been inspired by the poet.

The Tortured Poets Department, the star’s 11th studio album, will be released on 19 April, and features collaborations with Florence + The Machine and Post Malone.

Song titles include I Can Fix Him (No Really I Can); Guilty As Sin? And I Can Do It With A Broken Heart, while the bonus song is titled The Manuscript.

The big quesion now is: will there be more inspiration from her sixth cousin, three times removed?

Well, fans only have to wait until next month – thankfully not forevermore – to find out.

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