Through the use of similes, me…

Through the use of similes, metaphors, symbolism, idioms, repetition, alliteration, rhyme and diction, Taylor Swift in Red is describing what she felt before, during and after her relationship with a certain boy.     Taylor Swift was born December 13, 1989 in Reading, Pennsylvania. She began singing at local events at the age of 10. At 12 she began writing her own songs and learning guitar. Later on her family then moved to Hendersonville, Tennessee to help further her musical career.

She started as a country singer/songwriter in 2006 and now in 2016 is a pop singer, songwriter. Taylor’s first album was a self titled debut album. As biograhy.com states, Taylor was “nominated for a Grammy in the Best New Artist category and won other accolades, including the ACM’s Female Vocalist of the Year Award.” Around that time  her second album Fearless came out. “In 2010 she became the youngest artist to win the Grammy Award for Album of the Year, for Fearless,” stated by biography.

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Her later albums Speak Now, Red and 1989 all sold more than a million copies the opening week.A big part of the song is the symbolism. The symbolism helps you understand what the song is about. The symbolism in the song uses colors to represent emotions. The colors she uses are blue, dark grey and red. The color Blue means sadness, the color dark grey represents depression and loss and red represents happiness, joy and bliss. She uses red to show the strong affection of the relationship and dark grey to show the sadness and loss of that affection when the relationship ended.

The symbolism in the song is tied together with the metaphors. When there is a metaphor it includes a color that has symbolism. A metaphor is a comparison not using like or as. The metaphors are only in the chorus. The first metaphor in the song is “losing him was blue,” comparing losing him to the feeling of sadness. The next metaphor is “missing him was dark grey all alone.” This says that missing him was depressing and lonely.

Another metaphor is “loving him was red.” The metaphor compares loving him to the feeling of happiness, joy and bliss. In Red, similes decorate the song. A simile is a comparison using like or as. Throughout the whole song at least every verse has a simile. The similes in the song represent what she felt during and after the relationship. It is said that owning a luxury car brings you happiness like how being in a relationship is supposed to bring you happiness.

In reality once you get the stationary car it is a disappointment like a relationship that is progressing slowly or not at all, can be a disappointment. Taylor shows that through the simile “loving him is like driving a new maserati down a dead end-street.” She compares the new luxury car with nowhere to go to the thrill and end of a relationship. The simile “loving him is like trying to change your mind,” shows how the concept of dating him was hard to grasp in her mind. “Like the colors in autumn, so bright just before they lose it all,” is the next simile. The simile compares autumn to the end of a relationship. During autumn leaves change and fall like how the relationship soon changed and ended.

“Blue like I’d never known” shows that losing him made her get a feeling of unknown sadness. “Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met” is another simile. You can’t know a stranger without meeting them because it is impossible like for Taylor Swift, it is impossible for her to forget him. The simile “Memorizing him was as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song,” is in the next verse. The simile explains how she misses having him around and still remembers everything about him. This is displayed because when you hear an old song that hasn’t been played in a while, the lyrics come rushing right away and remember all of them. When you find out there is no right answer to a hard problem you get frustrated.

Taylor explains that, fighting with him was frustrating through the simile, “fighting with him was like trying to solve a crossword and realizing there’s no right answer.”     The use of end rhyme is in the songs verse’s. The first end rhyme starts in verse 2 with the 2nd and last line. The 2nd line is ” Memorizing him was as easy as knowing all the words to your old favorite song.” The last line is “Regretting him was like wishing you never found out that love could be that strong.” The rhyming occurs in the last words, “song” and “strong.”