Taylor Swift knows how to say goodbye in the most devastating ways. Since announcing The Tortured Poets Department in February, fans have awaited the newest addition to her Track 5 canon, “So Long, London.” Just as the title promises, Swift’s new song is an emotional farewell, hinting at her six-year relationship with Joe Alwyn.
During the song, Swift gives a solemn send-off to a lover that she can no longer help through his own struggles, having already carried their relationship through many storms. “Pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away,” she sings. “My spine split from carrying us up the hill.”
Swift goes on to allude that her mental health would suffer if she didn’t leave. “I stopped trying to make him laugh, stopped trying to drill the safe, thinking, ‘How much sad did you think I had in me?’” she sings. When she gets to the bridge, she goes as far as singing about feeling unloved and waiting for affirmations that never came.
“You swore that you loved me but where were the clues?” she asks. “I died on the altar waiting for the proof / You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days.”
Naturally, her haunting final words are apt for a funeral. “So long, London / Stitches undone / Two graves, one gun / You’ll find someone,” she sings.
Many fans think that “So Long, London” is a farewell ode to her London-native ex-boyfriend, Alwyn, from whom she reportedly split in March 2023 after six years of dating. Fans think he also inspired her 2019 song “London Boy,” which shares a reference with the new track’s title.
In “So Long, London,” Swift says her former lover “left me at the house by the Heath,” a possible reference to Hampstead Heath, a neighborhood that she also nods to in a “London Boy” lyric (“Like a Tennessee Stella McCartney on the Heath”). She was rumored to have been house-hunting in Hampstead Heath in March 2023, just days before her split from Alwyn was reported.
“So Long, London” Lyrics
Read the song’s full lyrics below.
I saw in my mind ferry lights through the mist
I kept calm and carried the weight of the rift
Pulled him in tighter each time he was drifting away
My spine split from carrying us up the hill
Wet through my clothes, weary bones caught the chill
I stopped trying to make him laugh, stopped trying to drill the safe
Thinking how much sad did you think I had, did you think I had in me?
Oh, the tragedy
So long, London
You’ll find someone
I didn’t opt in to be your odd man out
I founded the club she’s heard great things about
I left all I knew, you left me at the house by the Heath
I stopped CPR, after all it’s no use
The spirit was gone, we would never come to
And I’m pissed off you let me give you all that youth for free
For so long, London
Stitches undone
Two graves, one gun
I’ll find someone
And you say I abandoned the ship but I was going down with it
My white-knuckle dying grip holding tight to your quiet resentment
And my friends said it isn’t right to be scared every day of a love affair
Every breath feels like rarest air when you’re not sure if he wants to be there
So how much sad did you think I had, did you think I had in me?
How much tragedy?
Just how low did you think I’d go ‘fore I’d self implode?
‘Fore I’d have to go be free?
You swore that you loved me but where were the clues?
I died on the altar waiting for the proof
You sacrificed us to the gods of your bluest days
And I’m just getting color back into my face
I’m just mad as hell cause I loved this place for
So long, London
Had a good run
A moment of warm sun
But I’m not the one
So long, London
Stitches undone
Two graves, one gun
You’ll find someone
