Taylor Swift’s ‘Robin’ lyrics: What does the song mean?

Taylor Swift’s 11th studio album, “The Tortured Poets Department,” has been released overnight, and in typical Swift fashion, she dropped at a surprise additional 15 songs — confirming what her fans called the “two theory” with the release of a double album.

Among those 15 additional songs on the second part of “Tortured Poets” is a track called “Robin,” a piano ballad in which Swift draws imagery of animals and alludes to adolescence.

Revisit our live coverage of the release of “The Tortured Poets Department.”

This is a song that could be interpreted in a few ways: It may seem Swift is taking a mental snapshot of a child, wishing that child can hold on to the freeness of their youth before its tainted by strains of adulthood — “You have a favorite spot on the swing set/ You have no room in your dreams for regret/ You have no idea/ The time will arrive for the cruel and the mean.” Swift has written a few songs with themes like this, such as “You’re On Your Own, Kid” and “Never Grow Up” and “The Best Day.”

But this could also be a song about an adult person overtaken by childish tendencies and refusing to grow up. Think about lyrics like this: “You’re a just ruler/ Covered in mud, you look ridiculous/ And you have no idea.”

Read the full lyrics here:

This article was originally published on TODAY.com