The song "Fortnight" by Taylor Swift and Post Malone tells a story about strong feelings, complicated relationships, and secret wishes. It talks about love, betrayal, and wanting someone who doesn't feel the same. The word "fortnight" shows short-lived happiness and guilty pleasures, leading to sadness. It shows how messy relationships can be and the results of hiding emotions. “I was supposed to be sent away / But they forgot to come and get me,” she kickstarts the song in the first verse with lines suggesting an admission to a hospital for people with mental illnesses. She goes in the verse admitting her lover is the reason why she is like this. In the chorus, she sings about their time in love and reflects on how he has now settled with someone else. “I took the miracle move-on drug, the effects were temporary / And I love you, it’s ruining my life,” on the second verse she details her struggles to forget about him and the negative effects of her failure. “Thought of callin’ ya, but you won’t pick up / ‘Nother fortnight lost in America,” Post Malone sings in the outro.
Miles of flattened trees
And the river serpentine
Ribbons of wild geese
Above the cedars and the pines
You can travel to escape yourself
But the fact is you still take yourself
Feathered hopes and blackened suns
At every twist and every turn
Always set on high alert
Thinking that you will get hurt
When so much of love
Is so neutral and so misread
Wound up like a coiled spring
Will jump off at anything
But must of the stuff is just
Happening in our own head
Oh, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see yourself
Yeah, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see yourself
Rachel's friend he lost his job
And now his wife earns everything
So he cooks the food and he bathes the kids
And for the bedtime the songs he's learned to sing
But there's one thing he doesn't get
He sees his wife as a threat
When most of her love is so neutral
And so misread
He shouts and he disagrees
He can't allow her any victories
But most of the stuff is just happening
In his own head
Oh, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see your own face
Yeah, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see your own face
So come on my heart
Where do we start?
Are you that easy to outsmart?
My stupid heart
Why so foolish and why so weak?
And where did you get the selfish streak?
See the bad in everyone
Who are you trying to outrun?
Always set on high alert
Thinking that you will get hurt
When so much of her love
Is so neutral and so misread
Open up your arms tonight
Open up and hold her tight
Because must of the stuff is just happening
In your own head
Oh, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see yourself
Yeah, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see yourself
Oh, the heart is a mirror
Oh, the heart
So open your arms tonight
Yeah, open your arms tonight
And the river serpentine
Ribbons of wild geese
Above the cedars and the pines
You can travel to escape yourself
But the fact is you still take yourself
Feathered hopes and blackened suns
At every twist and every turn
Always set on high alert
Thinking that you will get hurt
When so much of love
Is so neutral and so misread
Wound up like a coiled spring
Will jump off at anything
But must of the stuff is just
Happening in our own head
Oh, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see yourself
Yeah, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see yourself
Rachel's friend he lost his job
And now his wife earns everything
So he cooks the food and he bathes the kids
And for the bedtime the songs he's learned to sing
But there's one thing he doesn't get
He sees his wife as a threat
When most of her love is so neutral
And so misread
He shouts and he disagrees
He can't allow her any victories
But most of the stuff is just happening
In his own head
Oh, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see your own face
Yeah, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see your own face
So come on my heart
Where do we start?
Are you that easy to outsmart?
My stupid heart
Why so foolish and why so weak?
And where did you get the selfish streak?
See the bad in everyone
Who are you trying to outrun?
Always set on high alert
Thinking that you will get hurt
When so much of her love
Is so neutral and so misread
Open up your arms tonight
Open up and hold her tight
Because must of the stuff is just happening
In your own head
Oh, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see yourself
Yeah, the heart is a mirror
Where it's easy just to see yourself
Oh, the heart is a mirror
Oh, the heart
So open your arms tonight
Yeah, open your arms tonight
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More Featured Meanings
Fortnight
Taylor Swift
Taylor Swift
Cajun Girl
Little Feat
Little Feat
Overall about difficult moments of disappointment and vulnerability. Having hope and longing, while remaining optimistic for the future. Encourages the belief that with each new morning there is a chance for things to improve.
The chorus offers a glimmer of optimism and a chance at a resolution and redemption in the future.
Captures the rollercoaster of emotions of feeling lost while loving someone who is not there for you, feeling let down and abandoned while waiting for a lover. Lost with no direction, "Now I'm up in the air with the rain in my hair, Nowhere to go, I can go anywhere"
The bridge shows signs of longing and a plea for companionship. The Lyrics express a desire for authentic connection and the importance of Loving someone just as they are. "Just in passing, I'm not asking. That you be anyone but you”
Dreamwalker
Silent Planet
Silent Planet
I think much like another song “Anti-Matter” (that's also on the same album as this song), this one is also is inspired by a horrifying van crash the band experienced on Nov 3, 2022. This, much like the other track, sounds like it's an extension what they shared while huddled in the wreckage, as they helped frontman Garrett Russell stem the bleeding from his head wound while he was under the temporary effects of a concussion. The track speaks of where the mind goes at the most desperate & desolate of times, when it just about slips away to all but disconnect itself, and the aftermath.
Mountain Song
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction
Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell gives Adam Reader some heartfelt insight into Jane’s Addiction's hard rock manifesto "Mountain Song", which was the second single from their revolutionary album Nothing's Shocking. Mountain song was first recorded in 1986 and appeared on the soundtrack to the film Dudes starring Jon Cryer. The version on Nothing's Shocking was re-recorded in 1988.
"'Mountain Song' was actually about... I hate to say it but... drugs. Climbing this mountain and getting as high as you can, and then coming down that mountain," reveals Farrell. "What it feels to descend from the mountain top... not easy at all. The ascension is tough but exhilarating. Getting down is... it's a real bummer. Drugs is not for everybody obviously. For me, I wanted to experience the heights, and the lows come along with it."
"There's a part - 'Cash in now honey, cash in Miss Smith.' Miss Smith is my Mother; our last name was Smith. Cashing in when she cashed in her life. So... she decided that, to her... at that time, she was desperate. Life wasn't worth it for her, that was her opinion. Some people think, never take your life, and some people find that their life isn't worth living. She was in love with my Dad, and my Dad was not faithful to her, and it broke her heart. She was very desperate and she did something that I know she regrets."
Amazing
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran
Ed Sheeran tells a story of unsuccessfully trying to feel “Amazing.” This track is about the being weighed down by emotional stress despite valiant attempts to find some positivity in the situation. This track was written by Ed Sheeran from the perspective of his friend. From the track, we see this person fall deeper into the negative thoughts and slide further down the path of mental torment with every lyric.