15 of the Most Romantic Taylor Swift Songs Through the Years

This one is for the long-time Swift fans. A debut-era B-side, “Mary’s Song” is all about a youthful look at love. The singer chronicles childhood friends to lovers as they go from kids to teens and on. The last chorus finds the couple getting married — “Take me back to the time when we walked down the aisle / Our whole town came and our mamas cried / You said, ‘I do,’ and I did, too / Take me home where we met so many years before / We’ll rock our babies on that very front porch.” It’s a classic Swift song for good reason.

Still one of Swift’s most iconic songs, “Love Story” has been an anthem for hopelessly romantic girls for nearly 20 years. The singer paints herself as the Juliet in this love story, waiting for her Romeo. Thankfully, however, this love story has a brighter ending: “He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring, and said / Marry me, Juliet, you’ll never have to be alone / I love you and that’s all I really know / I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress It’s a love story, baby, just say yes.”

A deluxe track on her Grammy-winning 1989, “You Are In Love” is perhaps Swift’s most romantic song to-date. Swift has spoken in the past about how the song, which she wrote with frequent collaborator Jack Antonoff, was about his at-the-time relationship with actress and writer Lena Dunham, through the eyes of Swift. It’s one of her most underrated tracks from her entire discography.

There’s so many romantic moments on the song, it’s hard to pick just one standout. The bridge, unsurprisingly, is a contender (“You two are dancing in a snow globe, ’round and ’round / And he keeps a picture of you in his office downtown / And you understand now / Why they lost their minds and fought the wars/ And why I’ve spent my whole life trying to put it into words”), but the end of the second verse is downright swoonworthy: “One night, he wakes, strange look on his face / Pauses, then says “You’re my best friend” / And you knew what it was, he is in love.”

Did you think I could do a love songs list and not include a track that features lyrics like “Don’t read the last page / But I stay when you’re lost and I’m scared and you’re turnin’ away?” Now one can debate that this about platonic love, but I still think it’s romantic. The song’s evolved over the years, and it’s a touching moment during any Swift show. But once again, her bridge is a standout moment on the song: “Please, don’t ever become a stranger / Whose laugh I could recognize anywhere.”

The Lover era was full of, well, love. The album and the era remain one of Swift’s more divisive eras — remember when everyone was debating whether or not she could be happy and write music? But us real, excuse the pun, lover girls know that the album is one of Swift’s best. 

The titular track’s bridge is among the most swoon worthy moments on the album. The lyrics are literally vows, and it’s adorable: “Ladies and gentlemen, will you please stand? / With every guitar string scar on my hand / I take this magnetic force of a man to be my lover / My heart’s been borrowed and yours has been blue / All’s well that ends well to end up with you.” 

The last line of the bridge is still the most authentically Swift: “Swear to be overdramatic and true to my lover.”

This is a peak Swift love song. “Daylight” became a defining song of the Lover era, and it’s more than deserved. It’s a dreamy, nearly five-minute song about finally finding the person who feels like daylight. The most romantic lyrics? The entire song. One of the most powerful moments on the song, particularly for long-time fans, is the call back to her Red album, all about how true love was full of angst and fighting for the love you wanted. It’s a more mature look at what love is: “I once believed love would be burnin’ red / But it’s golden / Like daylight.”

Another Lover-era gem, “Cornelia Street” has become one of Swift’s most iconic songs. Cornelia Street, the West Village street she briefly lived on in New York, has become a place of pilgrimage for fans. In the song, the singer recounts the early days of a romance, wishing it would never end. The lyrics make it easy to see why it’s one of her most romantic: “You hold my hand on the street / Walk me back to that apartment / Years ago, we were just inside / Barefoot in the kitchen / Sacred new beginnings / That became my religion.”

The penultimate track on Swift’s groundbreaking Folklore, “Peace” explores what it means to be committed to someone, promising to always love them, but needing to let them know that it might now be enough. It’s equal parts romantic and heartbreaking, but it’s Swift at her best and most introspective. In the song, Swift yearns for her love to want her for her, and all that comes with that: “All these people think love’s for show / But I would die for you in secret / The devil’s in the details, but you got a friend in me / Would it be enough if I could never give you peace?”

In the same vein as “Mary’s Song,” this Folklore-era track explores the idea that two people can be connected for life. Unlike the debut era track, “Invisible String” presents the idea that despite not meeting, Swift and her love have always had an invisible string connecting each other — do a search on the red string theory if you’re curious to learn more. It’s another dreamy and swoonworthy track. Some standout lyrics include “One single thread of gold / Tied me to you” and “Hell was the journey, but it brought me heaven.”

This previously axed track — it was meant to be on the Lover album but ultimately didn’t make the cut — was released ahead of the Eras Tour. It’s a unique way into a love song, as Swift spends the song thanking the women her partner has dated before her, who shaped him into the person she’s fallen in love with. It also explores some of her past loves (“Crying in the bathroom for some dude / Whose name I cannot remember now)” but the idea that who these two people have loved in the past led them to each other earns it a spot on this list. 

Everyone say “Thank you, Emma Stone!” The vault track, a series of previously unreleased songs that Swift put out when re-recording her masters, chronicles the way Swift’s friend falls in love. Swift spends the song crooning about the idealized way that Emma falls in love, eventually admitting sometimes she was her. The song’s last verse is where it really shines: “Emma met a boy with eyes like a man / Turns out her heart fits right in the palm of his hand / Now he’ll be her shelter when it rains / Little does he know, his whole world’s about to change.”

Another Speak Now-era vault track, “Timeless” showcases Swift’s standout storytelling songwriting. Swift has historically enjoyed thinking about her own love through the lens of those in the past, and this song does that perfectly. “Hundreds of years ago, they fell in love, like we did,” she sings on the pre-chorus. “And I’d die for you in the same way if I first saw your face.” 

And now, the Kelce era. What many believe to be her first song about her soon-to-be husband, this Tortured Poets Department track was a glimmer of hope in an otherwise heartbreak-filled album. After the dark days of heartbreak, she’s found love and it’s a part fact. There’s plenty of not-so-subtle references to her beau throughout, but the bridge is peak Swift: “Shirts off and your friends lift you up over their heads / Beer stickin’ to the floor, cheers chanted ’cause they said / ‘There was no chance trying to be the greatest in the league’ / Where’s the trophy? He just comes running over to me.”

“So High School” is another track for her soon-to-be husband. It’s not her most revelatory song, but it’s sweet and cute. She’s in love, and she’s feeling transported back to a time when we weren’t all jaded by the reality of adult love. Plus, nothing is topping this Kelce reference: “Truth, dare, spin bottles / You know how to ball, I know Aristotle.”

This is the perfect song to end this list on. Swift’s been through the media and industry highs and lows, she’s achieved nearly everything an artist can and she’s finally found what she’s always wanted — the one. Evidenced in several of the other songs on this list, she’s thought she’s found it before, but it’s nothing compared to her present (“I thought I had it right, once, twice, but I did not / You caught me off my guard”).

“I just want you / Have a couple kids, got the whole block looking like you / We tell the world to leave us thе fuck alone, and they do, wow,” she sings on the chorus. “Got me drеaming ’bout a driveway with a basketball hoop / Boss up, settle down, got a wish list / I just want you.”