Part One: The Advice
‘Dear Reader’ is the closing track of Midnights (3am Edition), the 10th studio album by Taylor Swift. In the first part of the song, Taylor shares with the listener various pieces of advice regarding different and ambiguous topics, addressing the listener throughout the song as the “dear reader”. Although the origin of the pieces of advice is not clear, one might speculate it is related to her life – especially related to her life becoming a famous artist and her learnings navigating the music industry.
‘Dear Reader, if it feels like a trap, you’re already in one’
‘Dear Reader, when you aim at the devil, make sure you don’t miss’
For example, these two lines might reference Taylor’s experience regarding her 2019 masters dispute with Big Machine Records. Some other pieces of advice hint at meaningful events in her life, such as the line
‘Dear Reader, get out your map, pick somewhere, and just run’
which might be a reference to Taylor’s isolation in the UK following her feud with Kanye West, an event that would eventually lead to her 6th studio album, reputation.
However, quite ironically after sharing this series of advice, Taylor reveals her current mental state and contradicts her own intention of advising the listener in every chorus by stating,
‘Never take advice from someone who’s falling apart’
as a warning not to trust the words she has shared. Taylor finds herself in a mental state where she feels she cannot be trusted due to the self-doubt caused by the pain of heartbreak and grief.
Part Two: Confession
Although the second part of the song is shorter compared to the first, it has a greater emotional weight and meaning. Taylor’s mental turmoil becomes more visible and prominent in the climax of the song, where Taylor undermines her own thoughts, feelings, and her previous advice by labeling them as the ‘prayers of a cursed man‘.
During this bridge, Taylor not only confesses the brutal loneliness and isolation she finds herself in with the lines
‘To a house, not a home, all alone ’cause nobody’s there’
‘No one sees when you lose when you’re playing solitaire’
but also reveals the gut-wrenching helplessness she feels, when she states
‘You wouldn’t take my word for it if you knew who was talking’
This line is perhaps the most heartbreaking of the song, as she expresses that she no longer believes anyone could take her feelings of pain and self-doubt with seriousness. These feelings of complete dehumanization of her own self can be interpreted as being dehumanized by either people who won’t believe an idol like her is capable of feeling grief and pain during the peak of her career or by people who despise her and simply will not believe her feelings for the sole reason that she’s Taylor Swift.
Part Three: The Vocoders
In the final moments of the song, Taylor displays moments of complete resignation and urges the listener to find another ‘guiding light’, referencing herself as such, as she does not feel capable of being a guide to others. She sings:
‘You should find another guiding light’
However, Taylor is very self-aware that this request might prove itself to be challenging, as Taylor’s artistic success and popularity make it very hard not to be affected by her immense influence. And thus, she adds the following line
‘but I shine so bright’
to acknowledge that although she urges the listener not to look up to her anymore, it might not be possible due to her fame and artistry.
Similarly to ‘Out of the Woods’ from Taylor’s 5th studio album 1989, these vocoders repeat the lines
‘You should find another guiding light
guiding light but I shine so bright’
over and over to simulate Taylor’s rampant anxiety, until they subtly fade out into resignation, bringing an end to the song.
As the closing track of Midnights, ‘Dear Reader‘ ends the album on a truly heartbreaking note. The ending of this album marks a very noticeable contrast to its predecessor, Evermore, whose title and closing track ends the album on a painful but optimistic note, stating that ‘this pain wouldn’t be for evermore‘.
Midnights, however, ends with a Taylor who is heartbroken and stricken with grief, loss, pain from heartbreak, and most importantly, self-doubt. It is perhaps for this reason that ‘Dear Reader’ is the most fitting way to end such an emotional album, for its honest but visceral display of a Taylor who is broken.
Even though Taylor assures the listener that she is not in a state to be a role model for others, her guidance can be looked at in other ways. It is exactly songs like this that serve as an emotional rapport, as a way to feel understood or to relate to someone going through a similar situation.
‘Dear Reader’ is the guiding light that might help you to process feelings of grief, loss, and self-doubt in the face of a massive heartbreak, just as I have.
Dear Reader 