Seasons
Seasons run through Taylor Swift's songwriting as a way of measuring time against feeling: the turning year, spring, summer, autumn, winter, set against the speaker's state of mind. It runs across the catalogue, from august and 'tis the damn season through cardigan, Maroon, and the winter-into-spring movement of ivy. It is kept distinct from Weather (the conditions themselves) and Flowers (what blooms) by centring on the season as a unit of time rather than on its weather or its growth.
Seasons are change the speaker cannot stop, hurry, or refuse - a passage imposed from outside. Particular seasons carry particular feelings: spring as renewal feared or longed for, autumn as the moment a relationship begins or ends, winter as suspension, summer as the brief window when something is possible.
Appears in 8 songs
“Summer went away, still, the yearning stays”
Summer personified as departing represents the passage from youth to maturity. Uncle Jerry reads it as seasonal symbolism where summer represents 'the bloom of life, youth, innocence, possibility,' and its departure condenses the speaker's entire life span into seven words.
“Gray November I've been down since July”
The progression of months, July, November, December, marks the speaker's sustained depression across seasons and structures the poem's temporal arc. Uncle Jerry reads the apostrophe to the months as the speaker addressing time as it passes her by.
“August slipped away into a moment in time”
August represents the finite window of possibility for a summer romance, the month itself becomes a container for the entire relationship, and its passing marks the relationship's end.
“I knew you through the daze of the blades of the grass in summer”
Summer represents childhood itself, the season of innocence, play, and the formation of the friendship being remembered. It is the temporal setting for the memories the speaker is recalling through the haze.
“The autumn chill that wakes me up”
Autumn functions as both the literal season and a metaphor for the grandmother's stage of life, the approach of death/winter. The chill marks both the physical sensation and the emotional awakening to mortality.
“Clover blooms in the fields Spring breaks loose, the time is near”
Spring represents rebirth, new life, and fertility, but its breaking 'loose' suggests it was imprisoned, unwanted, or feared. Uncle Jerry reads the passage of seasons (winter/snow to spring) as a telescoping of time and notes the unsettling quality of spring 'breaking loose, like someone was trying to keep it prisoner... somehow spring should remain in its grave.' Spring's arrival brings both hope and fear ('spring breaks loose, but so does fear').
“If I told you it was just a summer thing? I'm only seventeen, I don't know anything”
Summer operates as the season of the transgression, the affair with August was 'just a summer thing,' bounded by the season. Angela & Uncle Jerry discuss how 'summer thing' versus 'summer fling' is a deliberate adolescent word choice, and Uncle Jerry notes this is part of the broader trope of 17-year-old summer love that has been written about 'for as long as there have been young lovers.'
“Sweet tea in the summer”
Summer is the season of youth, experience, and growth. It locates the childhood memory in the warmest, most expansive time of year, when a child is free from school and the days stretch long.