Paradise Lost
Paradise Lost surfaces across two Taylor Swift songs, through thematic echo.
Appears in 2 songs
Associated with John Milton
Uncle Jerry cites Milton's Paradise Lost as a key literary treatment of exile, noting that Satan's defiant response to being thrown out of heaven ('better to rule in hell than serve in heaven') mirrors some of the defiance that leaks through the song. The exile from paradise and the refusal to accept that exile passively connects to both speakers' anger at being cast out of the relationship.
“So yeah, it's a fire It's a goddamn blaze in the dark”
Angela & Uncle Jerry note that the 'blaze in the dark' could be interpreted as black fire, which is mentioned in Milton's Paradise Lost as the fire of hell. Uncle Jerry connects this to the illicit love affair in the song, an affair that might take someone to hell. The connection is presented as one possible reading among several.