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Invisible Strings - 113 Poets Respond to the Songs of Taylor Swift: the most beautiful gift for Swifties!
113 poets respond to the songs of Taylor Swift.
With a record-breaking four Grammy awards for Album of the Year, Taylor Swift's lyrics have been heard by millions around the world - clever, authentic, and elegantly written, to her fans these songs are a kind of modern poetry.
In Invisible Strings, poet, professor and dedicated Swiftie Kristie Frederick-Daugherty has brought together 113 new poems, each inspired by a particular Taylor Swift song.
Taking a cue from Taylor's love of clues and puzzles, test your knowledge of every era - from Fearless to folklore, Reputation to The Tortured Poets Department, vault tracks included - to match each poem to the song it is a response to.
For Swifties, this is a creative and affectionate reimagining of their favourite writer's iconic discography - with a chance to see these songs in a brand new way.
For poetry lovers, this one-of-a-kind anthology is an unparalleled collection of new work from some of the most lauded and exciting voices in contemporary poetry.
With a record-breaking four Grammy awards for Album of the Year, Taylor Swift's lyrics have been heard by millions around the world - clever, authentic, and elegantly written, to her fans these songs are a kind of modern poetry.
In Invisible Strings, poet, professor and dedicated Swiftie Kristie Frederick-Daugherty has brought together 113 new poems, each inspired by a particular Taylor Swift song.
Taking a cue from Taylor's love of clues and puzzles, test your knowledge of every era - from Fearless to folklore, Reputation to The Tortured Poets Department, vault tracks included - to match each poem to the song it is a response to.
For Swifties, this is a creative and affectionate reimagining of their favourite writer's iconic discography - with a chance to see these songs in a brand new way.
For poetry lovers, this one-of-a-kind anthology is an unparalleled collection of new work from some of the most lauded and exciting voices in contemporary poetry.
304 pages, Hardcover
Published December 3, 2024
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
October 13, 2025
One I'll probably re-read every time now before my first listen of a new album.
First heard about in December 2024 thanks to the New York Times.
First heard about in December 2024 thanks to the New York Times.
September 2, 2025
Anthologies are always hard to rate but this one was especially tough because not only do the poems need to be good, they are also meant to meaningfully and thoughtfully interact with another piece of media. Some of the poems were incredible and some were pretty awful. Some poets did a great job at incorporating the songs (very creative uses of the structure, themes, and musicality) while it felt like some just read the lyrics and sprinkled in a few key words. A few were both bad and had nothing to do with their songs.
I think this anthology would have been better with 89 (to keep it a Taylor related number) well selected poems. It felt like the editor was friends with the authors and felt bad, well, editing out the subpar ones.
I also wish the "answers" were in the book itself, maybe a list on the back, instead of having to look it up on the website. I really wanted to know more about the process of putting this anthology together. How and why did the editor choose the songs for the poets? What did they think of their songs? How did they approach it? Were they familiar with the song or was it their first time listening to it? A few of them wrote about it but since they couldn't say what their songs were it was super vague and that made it a little pointless and very frustrating.
For me, personally, the ideal format would be the poem on one page and a little paragraph from the author, their mini biography, and other works from them on the next (instead of having all of this info at the end and having to go back and forth to see who wrote what). This way people can still do the guessing game but those who don't want to would have a much easier time finding the answer.
Anyways, I think the idea is incredible but the execution was lacking. Literature and easter eggs/references are obviously very Taylor Swift things so while, in theory, this book should be perfect, some poems were objectively not great in a literary sense, some were lacking the referential aspect, and some were both bad and had nothing to do with their song.
Overall, if you're a fan, I still think it's worth the read. And if you don't vibe with Taylor but know someone who does, this makes for a perfect gift.
(Unrelated to the book, but very fitting that this was the read that put me 13 books behind schedule on my reading goal)
I think this anthology would have been better with 89 (to keep it a Taylor related number) well selected poems. It felt like the editor was friends with the authors and felt bad, well, editing out the subpar ones.
I also wish the "answers" were in the book itself, maybe a list on the back, instead of having to look it up on the website. I really wanted to know more about the process of putting this anthology together. How and why did the editor choose the songs for the poets? What did they think of their songs? How did they approach it? Were they familiar with the song or was it their first time listening to it? A few of them wrote about it but since they couldn't say what their songs were it was super vague and that made it a little pointless and very frustrating.
For me, personally, the ideal format would be the poem on one page and a little paragraph from the author, their mini biography, and other works from them on the next (instead of having all of this info at the end and having to go back and forth to see who wrote what). This way people can still do the guessing game but those who don't want to would have a much easier time finding the answer.
Anyways, I think the idea is incredible but the execution was lacking. Literature and easter eggs/references are obviously very Taylor Swift things so while, in theory, this book should be perfect, some poems were objectively not great in a literary sense, some were lacking the referential aspect, and some were both bad and had nothing to do with their song.
Overall, if you're a fan, I still think it's worth the read. And if you don't vibe with Taylor but know someone who does, this makes for a perfect gift.
(Unrelated to the book, but very fitting that this was the read that put me 13 books behind schedule on my reading goal)
February 5, 2025
I bought this only because I saw Nina Mingya Powles had a poem in it.
Such a cool and exciting idea. Really enjoyed seeing such variety in responses to these songs (and trying to guess which songs they were about, then looking them up on the book’s website and being mostly wrong lol).
I also appreciated the notes from the poets on their process of writing/the particular influences and meanings of the song/poem.
The added bonus of a cento at the end was such a fun idea.
Hard to rate overall as there’s a big mix of very strong poems and pretty weak ones too (in my opinion!)
Some of my favourites:
Raroa Road - Nina Mingya Powles (Red)
Cocklebur - Erin Belieu (Seven)
Grief Observatory - Topaz Winters (Is It Over Now?)
Since You Can’t Spell Disaster Without Desire - Christopher Salerno (Champagne Problems)
Firstborn - Jeannine Ouellette (August)
Overall a joyful and playful read. I’d love to see more collections like this
Such a cool and exciting idea. Really enjoyed seeing such variety in responses to these songs (and trying to guess which songs they were about, then looking them up on the book’s website and being mostly wrong lol).
I also appreciated the notes from the poets on their process of writing/the particular influences and meanings of the song/poem.
The added bonus of a cento at the end was such a fun idea.
Hard to rate overall as there’s a big mix of very strong poems and pretty weak ones too (in my opinion!)
Some of my favourites:
Raroa Road - Nina Mingya Powles (Red)
Cocklebur - Erin Belieu (Seven)
Grief Observatory - Topaz Winters (Is It Over Now?)
Since You Can’t Spell Disaster Without Desire - Christopher Salerno (Champagne Problems)
Firstborn - Jeannine Ouellette (August)
Overall a joyful and playful read. I’d love to see more collections like this
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January 28, 2025Difficult to rate as I feel like poetry has different meanings for everyone, but I really loved that each poem related to a different Taylor Swift song. Some were obvious, and some I had to read a few times to understand the song it correlated to.
Overall, this is a gorgeous book and is definitely one for the Swifties 🫶
Overall, this is a gorgeous book and is definitely one for the Swifties 🫶
July 14, 2025
What a stunning collection!
I love the premise, I love the execution and I love how much love Kristie Frederick Daugherty had for this project.
There are some stunning poems in this. As in, I couldn't stop thinking about them and had to re-read them kind of poems. There were also some poems that weren't quite my style. Which is fine! Those would also often be the ones, where I had no idea what song they were related to.
Which is another point: I do kind of wish there was a "Masterlist" at the end, explaining which poet was given which song. And I understand why Frederick Daugherty decided not to do that. But it would have been fun. (Some poems were extremely obvious, but for the others).
So glad I got this book.
I love the premise, I love the execution and I love how much love Kristie Frederick Daugherty had for this project.
There are some stunning poems in this. As in, I couldn't stop thinking about them and had to re-read them kind of poems. There were also some poems that weren't quite my style. Which is fine! Those would also often be the ones, where I had no idea what song they were related to.
Which is another point: I do kind of wish there was a "Masterlist" at the end, explaining which poet was given which song. And I understand why Frederick Daugherty decided not to do that. But it would have been fun. (Some poems were extremely obvious, but for the others).
So glad I got this book.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews