In Taylor Swifts new album Folklore, her special deluxe edition which Swift has been doing since her Fearless days features a song called The Lakes. The Lakes Swift refers to is the Lake District, in England, which we all know has been Taylors home base since dating boyfriend Joe Alwyn. One of the stand out lines in the song is, “Take me to the lakes where all the poets went to die…”
But who are the poets Swift is referring to?
The Lake District is perhaps notable in fiction for being the inspiration of one Beatrix Potter, who wrote and illustrated the Peter Rabbit books. Notably, the 2005 film Miss Potter shows off the beauty of the area, as well as her life (with of course some slight alterations as Hollywood is apt to do).
But Beatrix Potter isn’t the only famous writer to have been inspired the place.
The poets Swift is referencing are a group of English poets frequently referred to as The Lake Poets. This group includes William Wordsworth, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, and sometimes Wordsworth’s sister Dorothy who was unpublished during her lifetime.
Swift even gives a shout out to Wordsworth in a line which at first glance looks like a typo, but is actually in reference to the poet. “I’ve come to far to watch some name dropping sleaze tell me what are my Wordsworth.”
*Side note, The Lake District is also home to Cumbria, England in which the authors name derives from. Not that you needed to know that. But you know. Ahem. Anyway……
