Taylor Swift Is Related To Another Famous Woman Known For Her Way With Words

Taylor Swift has written many songs throughout her career, some of which she impressively penned without any help from additional songwriters. Songs are a form of poetry, and it's been discovered that Swift has a familial tie to one of America's most famous scribes: Emily Dickinson. Today got the scoop from Ancestry, who informed the outlet, "Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th century English immigrant (Swift's 9th great-grandfather and Dickinson's 6th great-grandfather who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut)."

On the "PopStart" segment of the "Today" show, the hosts elaborated on the connection, noting that Dickinson and Swift are "sixth cousins, three times removed," and that their relative in common was named Jonathan Gillette. When it was brought up that the world-conquering pop star had announced her surprise album, "Evermore," on Dickinson's birthday (December 10), Savannah Guthrie felt that was no coincidence, pointing out, "It's like Swiftology, she knows."

However, none other than Paul McCartney shared the surprising reason Swift pushed back the "Evermore" release date. According to the British icon, she initially planned on dropping it on her own birthday, December 13, but changed it to December 18 to not conflict with McCartney's album release. When it was changed to the 18th, Swift announced "Evermore" on the 10th and dropped it the day after. Even if the announcement happening on Dickinson's birthday was a coincidence, there are other connections between the two distant cousins and their work.

Whether it was intentional or not, the title of Taylor Swift's 11th record references her genetic connection with renowned poet Emily Dickinson. The album is entitled "The Tortured Poets Department" and is due for release in April 2024 (evidence is hot that several songs will take shots at Joe Alwyn and Paul Mescal). The "Bad Blood" hitmaker announced it on Instagram in February and included a poem of sorts, which may hint at some of the juiciest lyrics.

When Ancestry shared the Dickinson-Swift genetic link on their own Instagram, they recreated Swift's album announcement and changed the lines to reference some of Dickinson's most popular poems, such as "Success is counted sweetest" and "'Hope' is the thing with feathers". Ancestry also nodded to the title by ending their post the same way, with one little tweak: "All's fair in love and poetry [...] Sincerely, The Chairman of the Tortured Genealogist Department."

It's likely that "The Tortured Poets Department" will join "Evermore" as a record that fans rush to connect to Dickinson's work. For instance, one Reddit thread on the Taylor Swift subreddit dove into some speculated connections between "Evermore" and Dickinson's writings. Furthermore, a fan-favorite track from it was notably featured in a TV show about Dickinson herself. 

The popular AppleTV+ show "Dickinson" starred Hailee Steinfeld as Emily Dickinson and the real-life links to the legendary poet continue, since Steinfeld and Taylor Swift are longtime friends. Season 3, Episode 9 of the show ended with a steamy scene between Emily and Sue Gilbert. Gilbert, whose full name was Susan Huntington Gilbert Dickinson, was widely believed to be Emily's lover, although she ultimately married Emily's brother, Austin Dickinson. Immediately following the love scene between Emily and Gilbert (played by Ella Hunt), Swift's song "Ivy" plays over the end credits. 

One popular interpretation of the track suggested that it was about Emily and Gilbert's relationship. "Dickinson" showrunner Alena Smith opened up about the decision to include it on the show, telling The Hollywood Reporter, "I really wanted to use that song — I mean I love that song and also the fans have sort of developed a mythology around it as being a song that relates to Emily and Sue on some emotional level." 

They got permission to use the song and originally were going to use it for the actual scene. However, Smith decided to have the scene itself focus on Emily's breathing and quieter music, "Then when the Taylor Swift song pops on in the end credits it just increases the hit of joy that you get from it." Who would have thought that one of Dickinson's relatives would have her song featured in a show about the poet's life?