One Of Taylor Swift's New Songs Seems To Be About Miscarriage — And Fans Are Reacting
'Bigger Than The Whole Sky' off of her tenth album, 'Midnights,' is about love and loss.
It’s like Christmas for millions of Taylor Swift fans around the world, as the pop star released her tenth studio album Midnights at midnight last night. And then, at 3 AM, she added a huge bonus: seven more brand new tracks that she’s calling the 3 AM Songs.
One of these tracks, “Bigger Than The Whole Sky,” seems to be about the grief of miscarriage — and it has all the Swifties pulling apart the lyrics and sharing their own experiences listening to the songs after a pregnancy loss.
The biggest clue that this might be a song about miscarriage? The lyrics. Here are a few key moments, starting with the chorus.
“Goodbye, goodbye, goodbye / You were bigger than the whole sky / You were more than just a short time / And I've got a lot to pine about / I've got a lot to live without.”
“I'm never gonna meet / What could’ve been, would’ve been / What should’ve been you / What could’ve been, would’ve been you.”
Certainly, the lyrics allude to losing someone or something before you even meet them — and after they’ve only existed for a short time. Other lyrics in the song’s verses more generally talk about love and loss — relatable to most anyone.
“No words appear before me in the aftermath / Salt streams out my eyes and into my ears / Every single thing I touch becomes sick with sadness / ‘Cause it's all over now, all out to sea.”
And:
“Did some force take you because I didn't pray? / Every single thing to come has turned into ashes / ‘Cause it’s all over, it’s not meant to be / So I'll say words I don't believe.”
It’s really important to note, for those who aren’t super-familiar with Swift’s backlog of songs (and why are you not??) to understand that even if the song is indeed about miscarriage or pregnancy loss, it’s not necessarily Swift’s personal experience or confessional moment — she often takes on other people’s experiences or entirely other characters during her writing and performances.
Fans on Twitter are drawing a strong line between the song and pregnancy loss.
“When I listened to “Bigger Than the Whole Sky” all I could see in my mind is the baby I lost and this put words to everything I’ve felt since the miscarriage,” one listener wrote. “I can’t imagine this being about anything else.”
Over on Taylor Swift’s sub Reddit, listeners are analyzing the song line by line — but more than that, they are also sharing their own experiences with miscarriage and how listening to the song is capturing their experience or helping them process.
“I suffered a late pregnancy loss last December and this song encapsulates that feeling so well,” one fan wrote. “I never thought I’d hear those feelings out so perfectly into song.”
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“This is the most powerful song I’ve ever heard as someone whose had a miscarriage,” another wrote. “I had to pull over the first time I heard it because the immediate tears clouded my vision.”
“Going through IVF right now and lost in the early days a pregnancy last May. I am sobbing so hard right know, I had to stop listening to the song. It encapsulates all I've been feeling and more since then. Gosh, she is that good.”
As of this morning, “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” was the number one song on iTunes in the U.S.
Listen to “Bigger Than The Whole Sky” on Spotify.
