This morning, the genealogy company Ancestry told TODAY that Taylor Swift and the American poet Emily Dickinson are related.
TODAY revealed that the two are sixth cousins, three times removed.
“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),” Ancestry shared with TODAY.
After Swift’s announcement of her upcoming album The Tortured Poets Department, fans began to speculate if the album will have any correlation to the well renowned poet.
TikTok user Jordyn (@djcrocs) posted a viral video explaining her theories behind the album being related to Dickinson’s poems. Jordyn’s video has reached over 20,000 views and 2,200 likes by Monday morning.
To start, Jordyn says she found the poem titled “419” by Dickinson on Twitter last night. She says she is “still processing it.”
“Let’s just talk through this together,” she says. Jordyn believes there are multiple connections to Swift’s songs specifically from this poem.
“The fact that her album, freakin the Tortured Poets Department, is coming out,” she says, “Who was more of a tortured poet than Emily Dickinson?”
“Who did Taylor Swift draw a lot of inspiration for Evermore from?” Jordyn asks. “Emily Dickinson.”
Jordyn’s comment is in reference to Swift’s ninth studio album Evermore. In 2020, fans speculated the reference to Dickinson because Swift released the album on Dickinson’s birthday, Dec. 10. Fans also notice the album name Evermore, and related this to the last line of one of Dickinson’s most romantic poems.
YOU'RE TELLING ME TAYLOR SWIFT IS DROPPING A NEW COTTAGECORE ALBUM ON THE SAME DAY AS EMILY DICKINSON'S BIRTHDAY CALLED EVERMORE WHICH IS HOW EMILY DICKINSON CLOSED ONE OF HER MOST ROMANTIC POEMS THAT SHE WROTE FOR HER LOVER SUE GILBERT???? pic.twitter.com/NYeIymeihc
— wass'ˣ ¦ LYON N2 (@taylordspatrol) December 10, 2020
Next in Jordyn’s video, she explains how The Tortured Poets Department releases on April 19.
“Or, four nineteen,” she adds. “And this poem is titled 419,” she says as she points to a screenshot of Dickinson’s poem in her video.
While reading through the poem, Jordyn correlates each stanza to a different album that Swift has released. Jordyn found most correlations in the poem to Swift’s albums, Lover and Midnights.
After finishing the poem, Jordyn says she thinks it represents how one has to “get used to this darkness and you’re able to like see something in the sight at the end.”
To this, Jordyn adds that she has two thoughts about what Swift’s upcoming album may hint at.
“Are we stepping out of this darkness?” she asks, “Are we like, you know stepping into the daylight and letting it go for real with this new album and this new era?”
“Because it feels like a new start,” Jordyn adds.
Although, Jordyn asks, “Or, are we staying in this darkness?”
Before ending her video, Jordyn reiterates, “I think it’s crazy that Emily Dickinson has a poem titled 419, with Taylor’s album coming out on 4/19.”
@djcrocs Replying to @Amanda @ren ♡ would love to hear your thoughts on this poem #lgbetty #thetorturedpoetsdepartment ♬ original sound – 🌝jordyn🪐
“4:19,” one user said in the comment section, “I wonder how long each song is now.”
The Daily Dot reached out to Jordyn via the TikTok comment section and Swift’s representative via email.