How Taylor Swift Is Related To Tortured Poet Emily Dickinson
Taylor Swift is not embellishing when she says she is a “tortured poet.” In fact, the tortured poet gene runs in her family! Ancestry announced on Monday, March 4th that the “I Can Do It With a Broken Heart” singer is related to legendary poet Emily Dickinson. The genealogy website told Today that Swift, 34, and Dickinson 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),” a press email states. “Taylor 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.”
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Swift herself has publicly referenced the 19th-century poet while talking about the different types of lyrics she writes for her songs. “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 in 2022 while receiving the Songwriter-Artist of the Decade Award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International.
It’s also been speculated that Swift’s 2020 album evermore drew inspiration from the poet. Not only was it announced on Dickinson’s birthday (December 10), but as social media users pointed out at the time, the name could be a nod to how the writer ended her poem “One Sister have I in our house” with the word “forevermore,” similar to the title of Swift’s album. A few days before she announced the release of evermore, Swift also discussed the cover of her album folklore, telling Entertainment Weekly she had an idea for “this girl sleepwalking through the forest in a nightgown in 1830,” which happens to be the year Dickinson was born.
This isn’t the first time a celebrity found out they were related to people just as famous. As we previously reported, Breaking Bad‘s Bob Odenkirk found out he is a distantly related member of the British royal family. Another pop star who found out about an unknown relation is *NSYNC alum Lance Bass being Britney Spears’ cousin. As we reported, Bass is the pop star’s sixth cousin, once removed.
The 5 Most Anticipated, Highest-Priced Concert Tours of 2024
4. Bad Bunny
The “WHERE SHE GOES” singer and rapper will be on his Most Wanted tour, with 47 dates. His median ticket price is $661.01, starting in Utah at the end of February. Bad Bunny will also be making stops in nearly every state: Nevada, Arizona, California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Minneapolis, Missouri, Illinois, Ontario, Michigan, Washington, D.C., New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas, Louisiana, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and ending in Florida on May 28.
