Yes, Taylor Swift, the renowned singer of “Cruel Summer,” has an illustrious poet within her family lineage. Ancestry, the genealogy company, recently unveiled a fascinating connection between the 34-year-old “Karma” artist and the legendary Emily Dickinson—they are sixth cousins, three times removed, as disclosed by Ancestry.
According to Ancestry’s findings shared with TODAY, both Swift and Dickinson trace their ancestry back to a 17th-century English immigrant. Swift’s 9th great-grandfather and Dickinson’s 6th great-grandfather, an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut, connect the two iconic figures. The Swift family remained in Connecticut for six generations before Taylor Swift’s branch eventually settled in northwestern Pennsylvania, where they intermarried with the Swift family line.
The upcoming album by Taylor Swift, titled “The Tortured Poets Department,” is scheduled for release on April 19. In 2022, during her acceptance speech for the songwriter-artist of the decade award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International, Swift acknowledged her connection to Emily Dickinson, stating, “If my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson’s great-grandmother while sewing a lace curtain, that’s me writing in the Quill genre.”
Fans, known as Swifties, have speculated that Swift’s ninth studio album, “Evermore,” released on December 10, 2020, the same day as Dickinson’s birthday, was influenced by the legendary poet. The album’s title also nods to the last word of Dickinson’s poem “One Sister have I in Our House,” with the concluding line reading, “From out the wide night’s numbers — Sue forevermore!”
Swift officially announced “The Tortured Poets Department” during her acceptance speech at the 2024 Grammys, where she won the Best Pop Vocal Album for her 2022 release, “Midnights.” Expressing gratitude to the Recording Academy and her fans, Swift revealed her secret about the new album’s release date and shared her excitement about posting the cover backstage.
Since the announcement, Taylor Swift has unveiled multiple versions of her upcoming album, with the final version revealed at her Eras Tour show in Singapore. The concluding edition includes a bonus track titled “The Black Dog.”