“Fortnight” Analysis
This post is not about video games
Welcome, welcome! Glad you have joined us here at Reading Swiftly, because we’re about to discuss the very first song of the album, Fortnight! I recommend you read the previous post with the epilogue, as that highlights the tone of what we’re going to see here, and throughout the album. Without further ado, let’s dive in! (I’m so excited! I don’t usually use these many exclamation marks!)
FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
When I first heard this song, my predominant emotion was…confusion. What is going on in this song? Who is she talking about? She’s an alcoholic? I hear “kill” a lot, what’s that about? But more than all that was the question: Why is this the album opener? What does this mean for the rest of the album?
It’s impossible to pick up the nuances and subtleties of Fortnight on a first listen, and we’ll see this emerge as a strong theme across TTPD. This is an album that begs for multiple runthroughs.
The most important thing to understand about Fortnight is that it’s fiction— in the sense that it’s not a diary entry or about a personal experience from Taylor’s life, but rather a story that is intended to encapsulate the recurring themes and ideas that we can find in the album. Each scene in Fortnight’s music video also represents a different song on the first album, and if you want to see this in action, just look at the Spotify covers for each song— they each show a different part of the MV that corresponds to that song. (Except for I Can Do it With a Broken Heart and Clara Bow, which are not represented in the MV).
Let’s examine the lyrics and identify these themes.
I was supposed to be sent away But they forgot to come and get me I was a functioning alcoholic 'Til nobody noticed my new aesthetic 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? And for a fortnight there, we were forever Run into you sometimes, ask about the weather Now you're in my backyard, turned into good neighbors Your wife waters flowers, I wanna kill her All my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary And 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, but I touched you And for a fortnight there, we were forever Run into you sometimes, ask about the weather Now you're in my backyard, turned into good neighbors Your wife waters flowers, I wanna kill her And for a fortnight there, we were together Run into you sometimes, comment on my sweater Now you're at the mailbox, turned into good neighbors My husband is cheating, I wanna kill 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 Thought of callin' 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 Thought of 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 I touch, touch, touch you
So many things to talk about! The first two lines of the song and the album are actually a reference back to Hits Different from Midnights, where she says:
I heard your key turn in the door down the hallway Is that your key in the door? Is it okay? Is it you? Or have they come to take me away? To take me away
The above lines seem to imply that someone, from a mental institution most likely, were meant to come to take her away. Now in Fortnight, they they have apparently “forgotten” about her and are not taking her away. This idea of her being in a mental institute is, of course, solidified by the Fortnight music video. And it’s also referenced in Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? with the line “You wouldn’t last an hour in/the asylum where they raised me.”
So what’s with all the mental institute talk? It’s hyperbole, an exaggerated way for her to convey the intensity of her emotions. She feels she has been driven crazy by the rage and sorrow and pain inside her, and she needs to be locked away from the rest of the world. This ties in nicely with the plea of “temporary insanity” she mentions in the epilogue. Put it all together, and the idea is that because “no one came to get her”, she was left to her own irrational devices.
Phew! That was just the first two lines!
So, another thing of note is that the first two lines and the music attached to the song are both reminiscent of Midnights, which helps the listener transition sonically from her last album to this.
The next two lines of the first verse are quite hard-hitting themselves. In literally the first verse of this new album, Taylor is declaring that she’s been a “functional alcoholic”. Now,— assuming this revelation is true and not just hyperbole— it’s sad but not really…surprising. There’s a lot of alcohol references in Taylor Swift songs. The next line “till nobody noticed my new aesthetic” makes the previous line even sadder, implying that nobody even noticed the changes in her, how she has transformed into a new version of herself. (The “till” could mean perhaps she realised that nobody but her could know, and only she was capable of fixing it, but I feel like that’s a reach.)
Now we’re getting into the meat of it. If Fortnight is a fictional story, what is that story about? To quote Taylor, it is set in an “American town where the American Dream you thought would happen to you didn’t.” Our protagonist (the poet’s persona, as we call it) and her husband live in this idyllic sort of house— white picket fence, friendly neighbours, backyard with flowers, the works. But this happy life is just a front. There’s a rot in this household, where both the husband and wife are miserable despite it all.
At one point in time, the protagonist and her neighbour were in a relationship. That relationship didn’t last, and they both got married to other people. Her ex’s relationship seems to be genuinely happy, and the protagonist can’t stand it. She goes to the point of saying that she wants to “kill her”, which again I think is an exaggerated feeling and not, you know, homicidal intent. Moreover, the protagonist’s husband is cheating on her as well, and she has the same desire to “kill him” there. I’m not certain about it, but in the song it sounds to me like when she talks about her ex’s wife, the anger is a lot more pronounced.
The crux of the song then is that she has to spend her life watching her ex go about his perfect life, living happily with his wife who is so much better than her. She can’t tear her eyes away from this scene, and it is compounding her misery. It doesn’t matter that their relationship was “for only a fortnight.” It mattered to her.
Now, a few things here. On the surface, this song seems to have been written by Taylor about her fling, not her ex, simply because of the short time period. I would argue otherwise, for a few reasons. For one, throughout the album, her new fling seems to be spoken of with resentment, or anger, or lust, or temptation. There is always an element of mixed feelings there, even when she’s being positive about him. There isn’t that same sense of anger about her ex. In this song, she doesn’t seem angry towards her ex, saying there’s “no one to blame” and at most, he committed “quiet treason”.
Then there’s the length of time. I don’t think, like the rest of the song, “fortnight” is supposed to be taken literally. I think it’s just to indicate a small period of time, in the context of their lives. The term itself is chosen above any other, I suspect, because of the fact that it is not used in America. It is used widely in Britain, and that with our British phrases and references (like “slammer” and London) indicate that her ex was British.
That covers the majority of the song, but there are a few things I’d like to point out.
“All my mornings are Mondays stuck in an endless February/I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary.”
My guess is that February is when the protagonists’ (and perhaps Taylor’s) relationship ended, and that’s why she’s stuck there in that moment of loss. I believe the miracle move-on drug that she’s taking is love. She has referred to love as a drug before, for example in Don’t Blame Me and illicit affairs. In this case, she tried for a new relationship in the desperate hope that maybe it would fix her, but the effects were just temporary. It was never going to last.
The final thing I want to point out is “move to Florida”. Florida and Texas are recurring motifs throughout this album, and Florida gets its first mention here. We’ll discuss it in detail in Florida!!! but even now the ex is woven into her daydreams of escape, because the car won’t start till she touches him.
And that’s it for Fortnight! We’ve just touched upon the themes of love, death, longing, heartbreak and marriage that we’re going to be seeing throughout the album. Thanks for reading, and be sure to comment! Your comments and community help me a lot, and motivate me to keep writing. Until next time!
(A reminder: I’ve written several novels of fiction, and if you like my writing, check them out! My bestselling murder-mystery thriller is called The Only Way Out is Death, and my other books can be found here.)
I can't wait for The Prophet and Cassandra!!
Okay just a personal opinion of mine is, I loke to view the poet and the anthology as two persona of the same person(more like a split personality) which is the main reason that gets the "poet" into the asylum.
"Now you're in my backyard, turned into good neighbors
Your wife waters flowers, I wanna kill her"
Is anthology's pov. She is telling this in anger or rage to her neighbour's wife until she realises, she is the neighbour's wife.
"Now you're at the mailbox, turned into good neighbors
My husband is cheating, I wanna kill him"
Pov of poet before the personality split. Instead of killing him, she goes insane after finding out her husband is cheating on her with their neighbour and to feel the love her husband had for her.. she starts believing she is the neighbour(naming her the anthology, cause she is the anthology of the poet within her).
I believe or more like just theorise(from the mv) that after going to the asylum the poet meets the doc and falls for him but through the entire ttpd songs and the two parts of the albums, the anthology persona falls for the doc mostly. She embraces the two persona together and acknowledges her past later. They escape the asylum together but he ghosts her at the end so she moves to florida to find an escape(continuation of the story).
I am literally writing a fanfiction on wattpad on this lol(I do that with every album. All fiction ofcuz)
Btw love your poetic devices analysis and relations with other songs, especially the part of the ex being british! Couldn't have seen that reference in those words!