Analysis of The Fate of Ophelia by Taylor Swift

 Introduction

This post is intended to examine the analysis of The Fate of Ophelia by Taylor Swift; looking at what the lyric is all about, the structure of the lyric, the biography of the writers, background of the lyric, etc. 

The Background of the Lyric

The lyric "the fate of Ophelia" alludes to a certain feminine character called Ophelia in the tragic drama titled Hamlet by William Shakespeare_ who is often seen as a symbol of tragic love and madness. The speaker in the lyric seemed to be drawing parallels between their own experience and Ophelia's, suggesting a deep emotional resonance.   

About The Fate of Ophelia by Taylor Swift

The Fate of Ophelia by Taylor Swift is a 3minutes 46seconds music released under the label called Republic Records on October 3rd, 2025. It's  is one of the songs in the music album titled "the Life of a Showgirl". 

Based on the fact that every music is born out of a lyrical poem. The lyric of "the Fate of Ophelia by Taylor Swift" revealed that it's about a complex, tumultuous relationship where the speaker has undergone a significant transformation. 

Overall, the lyric paints a picture of a relationship that has been both intense and transformative, with the speaker undergoing a journey of self-discovery and rediscovery.

About Taylor Swift

Taylor Alison Swift is a 14 times Grammy Award winner born 13-12-1989 in Pennsylvania, United States of America. She grew up to be known globally as an American pop singer and songwriter. Her 2025 music studio album has "The Fate of Ophelia" which happened to be written and produced with Max Martin and Shellback in the MXM studio. 

 About Max Martin

Karl Martin Sandberg who co-produced "the Fate of Ophephelia" with Swift and Shellback was born 26-02-1971 to a Swedish family. He has so many awards to prove his height of success as a producer and songwriter.

Structure of the Lyric

The lyrical composition is a 12 stanza arrangement with two simultaneous stanzas are repeated three times to serve as the refrain of the lyrical composition.  

Figuratives in lyrics are allusion, refrain, imagery, irony, etc.  

Besides the titIe serving as a literary classic allusion to on of the William Shakespeare's work of art_ the fifth stanza of the Lyric is also an instance of allusion:

"The eldest daughter of a nobleman Ophelia lived in fantasy But love was a cold bed full of scorpions The venom stole her sanity"

Looking further at the figuratives in the lyric, there is the employment of the following refrain to build a more melodic flow in the lyric:

"All that time

I sat alone in my tower You were just honing your powers Now I can see it all (see it all) Late one night You dug me out of my grave and Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia Keep it one hundred On the land, the sea, the sky Pledge allegiance to your hands Your team, your vibes Don't care where the hell you been 'Cause now you're mine It's 'bout to be the sleepless night You've been dreaming of The fate of Ophelia"

Other figuratives are metaphor (love was a cold bed full of scorpions), consonance (match to watch), assonance (all alone), synecdoche (You saved my heart from the fate of Ophephelia), symbolism (grave symbolised loneliness), irony (fire was a place of peace and safety in "pulling me into the fire"), etc.

About Hamlet

It is a vengeful tragic drama written by William Shakespeare. The resolved around Prince of Denmark (Hamlet) and his plot recovery the throne or power stolen from his father.

About William Shakespeare 

He was and still considered the greatest English playwright that had ever lived. Shakespeare was famous for being a poet, an actor, and a playwright who lived from 1564 to 1616.

The Themes of the Lyric

The theme of Discovery

Discovery is present in the lyrics of "the Fate of Ophelia". ,  The speaker reflects on their past experiences and how they've been shaped by this relationship.

The lyrics mention "All that time I sat alone in my tower / You were just honing your powers," which suggests that the speaker was unaware of the other person's intentions or growth. The line "Now I can see it all" implies a new found understanding or perspective.

The theme of Rescue or Redemption

The repetition of "You saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia" could be seen as a theme of rescue or redemption, where the speaker feels they've been saved from a potentially destructive path by this person.

Other themes are love, death, loneliness, etc. 

The lyric was motivated by the feeling of true sincere love, after a lengthy dungeon of loneliness which might have even ended in suicidal death by the speaker.

The Song Rating

Fans and listeners review is quite positive. The song got 100 million streams of Spotify within three days of release. A certain website named AOTY noted that the song scored 73% of the entire album "the Life of a Showgirl".

If you're interested in listening to "the Fate of Ophelia", you can check Spotify and the official Taylor Swift YouTube channel. 

Other places for further insights are other music streaming websites, audiomack, SoundCloud website, naijaloaded website, etc.

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Analysis Of Absence By Pablo Neruda

Introduction:

This is the analysis of absence by Pablo Neruda. As usual, background, theme, setting, structure, tone, etc. 

About the Poem:

Absence by Pablo Neruda has the theme of love and optimism. 

Neruda composed the poem on the ground of love; based on the context of the poem, we see two lovers without close contact. While the female feels hurt, the poem speaker composed this reassuring poem to prove that his love for her remains intact. 

Last stanza of the poem shows the optimistic nature of the poet:
"But wait for me,
Keep for me your sweetness.
I will give you too
A rose."

Structure:

Structurally, the poem titled "Absence" by Pablo Neruda is a multiple stanza free verse. The title of the poem makes the message straightforward. Where one lover worries about the long absence of his or her lover. 

It may not be appropriate to specify a setting for the poem but the subject in discussion deals with emotional condition tabled in front of the readers in the form of love letter. The tone is very sweet, wooing, and assuring.

Let's make a stanza-by-stanza explanation of this simple poem. The first stanza shows that the poet began to feel the absence of his lover immediately he departed which made him feel:
"trembling,
Or uneasy, wounded by me
Or overwhelmed with love, as
when your eyes
Close upon the gift of life"

The stanza two described their love affair in form of reminiscences:
"My love,
We have found each other
Thirsty and we have
Drunk up all the water and the
Blood,
We found each other
Hungry
And we bit each other
As fire bites,
Leaving wounds in us."

The third and the final stanza of the poem is where Pablo Neruda urged his lover to kindly wait for him as he promised to return to her with the gift she cherished the most "A rose".

Poetic Devices:

Few of the easily noticed poetic devices in the poem are simile "As fire bites", metaphor "the gift of life", anaphora "Or trembling" "Or uneasy" "Or overwhelmed with love", repetition of words and phrases.

"When you go in me" can be interpreted as "when the feelings of love I have inside my heart".

"Leaving wounds in us" can be interpreted as "making us inseparable".

About the Poet:

According to wikipedia information about the background of the poet, Pablo Neruda was a pen name derived from Czech poet Jan Neruda. The pen name later became his legal name. Pablo Neruda was born Ricardo Eliécer Neftalí Reyes Basoalto. He won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1971.

He was born in Chile on 12-07-1904 but died on 23-09-1973.

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Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
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Analysis Of Love III by George Herbert

Love III by George Herbert is an eighteen line love poem with a static rhythm plus end rhyme pattern of ABABCCDEDEFFGHGHII. The message of the poem is about the unconditional love of Christ and the unrighteous nature of human.

Christ who was symbolized as love in the poem was seen assuring sinners of his love for them by inviting the remorse sinners into his abode to dine with him "Love bade me welcome, yet my soul drew back" according to line 1. The invited human at first, resented his invite on the ground of imperfection and sinfulness "Guilty of dust and sin" as seen in line 2 and "I, the unkind, the ungrateful? ah my dear" seen in line 9 of the poem. At the completion of the poem, the invited sinner testified to the love and benevolence of Jesus Christ:
'“You must sit down,” says Love, “and taste my meat.”
So I did sit and eat."

George Herbert's poems are in form of dramatic monologues. This poem and his poem titled "The Pulley" both possess monologue revealing the conversation that transpired between two characters. "The Pulley" showed conversation between God and the poem speaker who witnessed the creation but "Love III" is a conversation between Christ and sinner. When the sinner claimed he wasn't worthy of standing before Christ "I cannot look at thee" but Christ replied in line 12 saying "Who made the eyes but I?" and such line is an instance of assonance.

Line 13-14 says "Truth, Lord, but I have marr’d them; let my shame/ Go where it doth deserve.” which means "Lord, the truth is that I have wrongly used the eye given so let me shamefully go to where I sinfully belong" both lines have an enjambment and a personification of "my shame". The line 16 which says "My dear, then I will serve" can be interpreted as "OK. Christ, I promise to worship you." The phrase "My dear" refers to Christ.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
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Deep Analysis Of Lullaby By W H Auden

Lullaby is a soothing song intended to lull a child to sleep. In the poem "Lullaby" by W. H. Auden, two crucial subjects were placed side-by-side; love and lullaby.

With the notion of the poem, lullaby is the best way to love which surpassed outward appreciation, nighttime sensual moments and cohabitational responsibilities. Auden saw no certainty in other things than lullaby.

He believed that time and sickness destroy youthfulness and its accompanied hopefulness through aging and dying; that's why the night his lover lie on his arms was worth everything to him.

Auden accepted the strong emotionality within romantic ecstasy but failed to attach importance to such ecstasy because it was gravy. Such ecstasy leads to other things like parenting:

"Soul and body have no bounds:
To lovers as they lie upon
Her tolerant enchanted slope
In their ordinary swoon,
Grave the vision Venus sends
Of supernatural sympathy,
Universal love and hope;
While abstract insight wakes
Among the glaciers and the rocks
The hermit's sensual ecstasy."

In stanza 3, Auden explained that although lovemaking as a means of quenching the cry of boredom, only last a very short period of time "like vibrations
of a bell" but nothing will deny him such moment with his lover; not even the scary future.

In the last stanza of the poem, Auden re-ascertained that "Beauty, midnight, vision dies" but that night spent together with his lover will serve as substitution for other things:

"Let the winds of dawn that blow
Softly round your dreaming head
Such a day of sweetness show
Eye and knocking heart may bless,
Find your mortal world enough;
Noons of dryness see you fed
By the involuntary powers,
Nights of insult let you pass
Watched by every human love."

"Lullaby" is a 40 line poem divided into 10 lines per stanza. The setting of poem is nighttime and the poem can be categorized under love and life. Love is the central theme of the poem but other themes such as death, growth, beauty, surfaced.

There are no planned end rhyme scheme though the title suggested  a song. The tone is sweet and wooing with the multiple use of images of sight. Other poetic devices in the poem are alliteration in line 15 and 16 respectively "vision Venus sends" and "supernatural sympathy" then simile in line 23 "Like vibrations of a bell" then metonymy in line "fevers" which was used to replace sicknesses then litotes in line "swoon" which was used by Auden to undermine love.

"All the dreaded cards foretell" even though Auden mentioned "faithless" in line 2, this show that the poet related with soothsayers to a certain extent.

Wystan Hugh Auden commonly called W. H. Auden was an English poet born 21th February, 1907. He later nationalized to an American citizen but departed earth on 29th September, 1973 at the age of 66.

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Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
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Analysis of Katerina: An Angel In The Flesh by Femi Fani Kayode

THE ANALYSIS:-

"Katerina: An Angel In The Flesh" is a descriptive love poem that embraced the instrument of praise and prayer.

The most part of the poem described Femi Fani Kayode's Katerina as an extraordinary beauty; using the same hyperbolical language of William Shakespeare's craftiness. The ending part of the poem carry some hope words that are tabled in form of prayer.

Few of the poetic devices in the poem are enjambment (as ideas or expressions flow beyond a single line), simile (many comparisons are made in the poem using "like" for instance "Your
words, like the Balm of Gilead" and "blazing red hair like a Royal Princess"), allusion in the poem "the Game of Thrones", alliteration in the poem "deep dimples" and "poor and less privileged", metaphor in the poem "thirst and quest for knowledge and understanding" and "wisdom oozes", the imageries in the poem a mostly of sight.

The major theme of the poem is love, beauty, and the excitement in pleasant human qualities. From the context of the poem, human achievement can also be considered as part of the themes in the poem.

THE POEM:-

Emerald-green eyes and blazing red hair, like a Royal Princess of Westeroth from the Game of Thrones. Beautiful deep dimples and a lovely warm smile. Pale, silk-like skin and waifer-thin lips. Such natural beauty. Your crown glistens and your glory is self-evident.

Most captivating of all is the power of your soul, the beauty and strength of your inner man and the profundity of your learned tongue: wisdom oozes. Your words, like the Balm of Gilead, bring hope: they soothe and heal.
Your compassion for the poor and less privileged and your empathy for the persecuted, the oppressed, the misunderstood and the downtrodden is self-evident and compelling. Your thirst and quest for knowledge and understanding is insatiable and never-ending.
Your love of the Living God is inexplicable, indescribable, unfathomable, profound, deep and utterly moving. You are a woman of substance, an angel in the flesh, a handmaiden of Jerusalem, a speaker of divine truths, a Daughter of Zion.
You are the stuff of which great Queens are made. May you live long and prosper and may you be a blessing to your generation and to generations unborn.

THE POET:-

Chief Femi Fani-Kayode is a Nigerian poet, a lawyer, and a politician born in Lagos, Nigeria on 16th October 1960 to Chief Remilekun Adetokunbo Fani-Kayode and to Chief (Mrs) Adia Adunni Fani-Kayode.He was christened David Oluwafemi (meaning “the beloved of the Lord”) Adewunmi Fani-Kayode. He was the Special Assistant (Public Affairs) to President Olusegun Obasanjo from July 2003 until June 2006.

Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
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Deep Analysis Of Over The World's Rim By William Faulkner

Over The World's Rim by William Faulkner is dominated by rhetorical questions. I guess this four stanza poem is motivated by the swift and steady rotation of the earth, time and seasons. At the moment Faulkner wrote the poem, it was December (end of the year): "Over the world's rim, drawing bland November/ Reluctant behind them, drawing the moons of cold" referring to line 1-2.

With the aid of rhetorical questions the poet wondered why the seasons keep dying and resurrecting on earth, he wondered if he had once had such privilege before he was born to this earth where he owned his living to death's limitation:
"What do their lonely voices wake to remember
In this dust ere 'twas flesh? what restless old

Dream a thousand years was safely sleeping
Wakes my blood to sharp unease? what horn

Rings out to them? Was I free once, sweeping
Their wild and lonely skies ere I was born?"

William Faulkner then enviously encouraged time and seasons to keep enjoying their freedom of continuous existence while he maintained his own inferiority because of his limitations as a mortal being.

The vivid themes are the virtues in nature, the comparison between mortal and immortal, impact of death on humans, etc. There are run-on-lines, imageries, and the use of poet license in the craft of the poem. Each stanza of the poem is four lines with end rhyme scheme of ABAB.

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Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
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Analysis Of Life In Our Village By Markwei Martie

In our little village
When elders are around,
Boys must not look at girls
And girls must not look at boys
Because the elders say
That is not good.

Even wn night comes
Boys must play separately,
Girls must play separately.
But humanity is weak
So boys and girls meet.

The boys play hide and seek
And the girls play hide and seek.
The boys know where the girls hide
And the girls know where the boys hide_
So in their hide and seek,
Boys seek girls,
And each to each sing
Songs of love.
©Markwei Martie

The author of the poem, Life In Our Village, is a Ghanaian poet and writer, he later took to religious path and career.

Looking at the poem which has 3 stanzas of unequal lines, the first stanza talks about the reason why boys and girls must not play together, the second stanza stated the reason why boys and girls didn't heed the advice and played together, the final stanza was about the outcome of the boys and girls play together.

The spoke of reality in an entertaining way. It held a classic rural setting (like in the days when moon
light play was rampant) and the diction was very simple and easily understood by all.

The theme of the poem are:
(1) The theme of irresistibility
(2) The theme of delinquency
(3) The theme of disillusionment

The irresistibility part of the poem was that "humanity is weak"(line 10), the boys and the girls could not help it but play together in spite of elders warnings and reasons.

The delinquency part of the poem showed that youths will always be youths and there are prone to misconduct due to their stubbornness and lack of broad experience of life.

The disillusionment part of the poem was that play was given a different picture different from what the youth knew it to be but they broke such illusion of play by playing together.

In the poem, one would see repetition, parallelism, euphemism, etc.

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Samuel C. Enunwa aka samueldpoetry
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