Taylor Swift Is Related to This Famous Tortured Poet
Apparently, writing runs in Taylor Swift's family! On Monday, Ancestry revealed that the 34-year-old pop songstress has a very famous poet in her bloodline.
The genealogy company shared with ET that it used its vast collection of online historical records to discover a family connection between Swift and the iconic American poet Emily Dickinson. Specifically, Swift and Dickinson are sixth cousins, three times removed.
"Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th-century English immigrant (Swift's ninth great-grandfather and Dickinson's sixth great-grandfather who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut)," Ancestry explained in a press release. "Swift's ancestors remained in Connecticut for six generations until her part of the family eventually settled in northwestern Pennsylvania, where they married into the Swift family line."
The GRAMMY winner has previously shared how Dickinson has influenced her pen, referencing the 19th-century poet in her 2022 acceptance speech while receiving the Songwriter-Artist of the Decade Award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International.
"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," she said at the time, accepting the award in person at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville along with hitmaker Ashley Gorley, who was named Songwriter of the Decade for his catalog that includes 63 chart-topping hits.
"The remarkable connection between Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson is just one example of the incredible things you can discover when you explore your past. Even if we don't know it, our pasts can influence our present - and how fun to see all the uncanny similarities between the pair," said Jennifer Utley, Director of Research at Ancestry.
Fans have long-speculated that Swift's ninth studio album, Evermore, was inspired by Dickinson.
Swift announced the album's release on Dec. 10, 2020 -- which is Dickinson's birthday -- which also happens to reference the last word of Dickinson's poem, "One Sister have I in Our House."
The last line reads, "From out the wide night's numbers — Sue forevermore!"
The reveal is fitting news as Swift gears up for the release of her 11th studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, on April 19.
Swift dropped the news of her impending release onstage at the GRAMMYs on Feb. 4 while accepting her 13th trophy from the Recording Academy. The announcement came amid ongoing red herrings from the star, who many fans believed had been hinting at an imminent Reputation (Taylor's Version) drop.
Moments after taking the stage, Swift took to social media to share the main cover image for the album. Shot by Beth Garrabrant, the black-and-white pic shows Swift lying on a bed, surrounded by pillows. The second slide of her Instagram post featured a handwritten page of what appeared to be lyrics, which read, "And so I enter into evidence / My tarnished coat of arms / My muses, acquired like bruises / My talismans and charms / The tick, tick, tick of love bombs / My veins of pitch black ink."
At the bottom of the page, Swift wrote, "All's fair in love and poetry - sincerely, The Chairman of The Tortured Poets Department."
For more on The Tortured Poets Department leading up to its April 19 release, follow ET's latest Swift coverage here.
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