Angela & Uncle Jerry dissect Would've, Could've, Should've from Taylor Swift's 2022 album Midnights, exploring its dense religious imagery, rhetorical structure, and the emotional weight of a young woman looking back on an exploitative relationship.
Key Insights
Uncle Jerry identifies the systematic use of conditional (if-then) statements as a central rhetorical device, noting how Taylor shifts from complete conditionals with metaphors in verse one to incomplete conditionals in the pre-choruses, forcing the listener to complete the painful implications. He observes that the final conditional in verse one drops metaphor entirely — 'if I was a child' — grounding the song in literal reality. Angela & Uncle Jerry connect the 'wash your hands' imagery to Pontius Pilate and explore the double meaning of 'promising grown man' as both the cliché of protecting powerful men and the broken promises made to a young girl. Uncle Jerry notes that after hearing the song performed, the placement of 'would've,' 'could've,' and 'should've' at the ends of poetic lines became apparent — something he had missed reading the lyrics alone — and that the monosyllabic phrasing of the outro creates an accelerating, dream-like pace even though the tempo remains constant.
Literary Analysis
Uncle Jerry approaches the song through rhetorical theory, identifying the conditional (if-then) statements as the structural backbone and analyzing how Taylor manipulates them, complete with metaphors in verse one, stripped to reality in the final line ('if I was a child'), and left deliberately incomplete in the pre-choruses to force reader/listener participation, citing Poe's critical principle that the best writers leave a window for the reader. He identifies the caesura as a key rhythmic and interpretive device, particularly in verse two where it forces the listener to dwell on 'you had never touched me' before moving forward. The song is read as deeply recursive, its repetitive chorus and outro mirror the speaker's inability to stop reliving the relationship, likened to a waking dream at 2:30 in the morning. Uncle Jerry frames the song against Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 43 from Sonnets from the Portuguese as a spectrum, Browning's love restored childhood faith and promised love beyond death, while Would've, Could've, Should've represents the opposite end where faith is destroyed and innocence is irrecoverable. He also draws a parallel to Fantine in Les Misérables as a figure taken advantage of to the ruination of her life. The legend of Rose Latulipe (a French Canadian folk tale about a woman who dances with a stranger who turns out to be the devil and loses her soul) is cited as a folkloric parallel to the 'danced with the devil' imagery. Biblical references discussed include John 14:15, Pontius Pilate washing his hands (Gospel of John), the tomb of Christ, the stigmata, the Book of John as the Book of Signs, Song of Solomon ('his banner over me is love'), Isaiah's banner for the nations, and the concept of Ebenezer as a type of banner.
Concepts Explored
Motifs
Literary Devices
References
Literary Quotes Referenced
"I love thee with a passion put to use in my old griefs with my childhood's faith. I love thee with a love I seem to lose with my lost saints. I love thee with the breath
smiles
tears of all my life. And if God choose
I shall but love thee better after death." — Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Sonnet 43
Sonnets from the Portuguese. "What is truth? Jesting
Pilate asked
and did not wait for an answer." — Francis Bacon. "If you love me
keep my command." — John 14:15 (paraphrased). "What can I say about a 23-year-old woman who died?" — Love Story (1970 film)
approximate quote.
People & Figures Mentioned
Connections Across the Work
Shared themes appear across the archive
Motifs traced in this song
Recommended Reading
Sonnets from the Portuguese; Les Misérables; Dance with the Devil
In the Archive
In the archive:
Would've, Could've, Should'veView song →4 themes traced
13 motifs traced
31 literary devices explored
10 literary references noted