Is Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ A Quill, Fountain Or Glitter Pen Album?

17 April 2024, 16:34 | Updated: 18 April 2024, 11:52

Can you really call yourself a Swiftie if you can’t on demand, tell people what type of pen a Taylor Swift song is? Quill, Fountain or Glitter? What do we think ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ will be?

Taylor Swift has been thoroughly enjoying her two-month break from her World Eras Tour, as she’s been seen partying it up with boyfriend Travis Kelce at Coachella in April.

But that doesn’t mean the superstar isn’t hustling hard, with a whole new album set to drop on the 19th of April, fans eagerly await the arrival of ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’

But what type of music will the upcoming album be? Taylor shared her writing process in the past, where she organised her music into three categories of writing instruments; A quill, a fountain pen and a glitter pen.

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So which did she symbolically use to write ‘The Tortured Poets Department’? Here’s what we know.

Taylor Swift’s writing pen process: Quill, fountain or glitter pen?

In 2022, Taylor Swift stepped onto a stage in Nashville to accept the award of 'Songwriter: Artist of the Decade' which was awarded to her by the Nashville Songwriters Association International.

On stage, the ‘Shake It Off’ artist began to speak of her songwriting process, “I’ve never talked about this publicly before, because, well, it’s dorky. But I also have, in my mind, secretly, established genres categories for lyrics I write. Three of them, to be exact. They are affectionately titled Quill Lyrics, Fountain Pen Lyrics, and Glitter Gel Pen Lyrics.”

“I came up with these categories based on what writing tool I imagine having in my hand when I scribbled it down, figuratively. I don’t actually have a quill. Anymore. I broke it once when I was mad,” she joked in her acceptance speech.

Taylor Swift's 'Quill songs'

Taylor then went on to explain in depth what each pen meant in terms of writing. To begin with, she explained her ‘Quill Songs,’“I categorize certain songs of mine in the Quill style if the words and phrasings are antiquated if I was inspired to write it after reading Charlotte Brontë or after watching a movie where everyone is wearing poet shirts and corsets.”

“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."

Taylor used her song ‘ivy’ from the album ‘Evermore’ as an example of a quill song, just take a closer look at the lyrics.

"How’s one to know / I’d meet you where the spirit meets the bones / In a faith forgotten land / In from the snow, your touch brought forth an incandescent glow / Tarnished but so grand."

Taylor uses words like tarnished, faith and incandescent to nail that ‘antiquated’ style.

Taylor Swift's 'Fountain pen' songs

Taylor then went on to explain her ‘Fountain pen’ songs are a style she considered to be her most popular style.

"I’d say most of my lyrics fall into this category. Fountain pen style means a modern storyline or references, with a poetic twist. Taking a common phrase and flipping its meaning.”

“Trying to paint a vivid picture of a situation, down to the chipped paint on the door frame and the incense dust on the vinyl shelf. Placing yourself and whoever is listening right there in the room where it all happened.”

“The love, the loss, everything. The songs I categorize in this style sound like confessions scribbled and sealed in an envelope, but too brutally honest to ever send."

Taylor used her song ‘All Too Well’ as an example that encapsulates that feeling, with the lyrics reading;

“Cause there we are again in the middle of the night / We’re dancing round the kitchen in the refrigerator light / Down the stairs, I was there”

You can see the way Taylor’s trying to paint a picture with details like the ‘refrigerator light,' those small details transport the listener to the world she’s describing.

Taylor Swift's 'Glitter pen' songs

Most of you can probably pick up where Taylor’s going with her Glitter pen songs.

She explains them as living up to their name in every way, describing them in her acceptance speech as, “Frivolous, carefree, bouncy, syncopated perfectly to the beat. Glitter Gel Pen lyrics don’t care if you don’t take them seriously because they don’t take themselves seriously.”

“Glitter Gel Pen lyrics are the drunk girl at the party who tells you that you look like an Angel in the bathroom. It’s what we need every once in a while in these fraught times in which we live."

Taylor’s Glitter Pen songs are some of her most successful because of their lighthearted happy nature which held mass appeal. She used her song ‘Shake It Off’ as an example of this genre.

“And to the fella over there with the hella good hair / Won’t you come on over baby / We can shake, shake, shake."

The songs may not mean much, but they’re a bloody good time.

Is Taylor Swift’s ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ A Quill, Fountain or Glitter Pen Album?

It’s impossible to say just yet, because the pens are based entirely on the lyrics but Taylor is the queen of easter eggs and she’s laid a few for her fans.

In April, Spotify hosted an interactive library installation for Swifties ahead of Taylor’s upcoming album drop for ‘The Tortured Poets Department.’

The installation ran for three days and saw fans line up for hours to take a look around a display of the curated poetry library.

Eagle-eyed fans posted images on the internet for online sleuths to theorise on and Swifties quickly noticed the presence of a fountain pen on a small writing desk within the installation.

At first glance, the feathered plant in the vase on the desk also tricked fans into thinking there was a quill as well, but as one fan eloquently put it, “This is not a quill it’s a plant frond or something.”

So based on the clues in the installations, it’s safe to say that perhaps a majority of the songs within ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ will be Fountain pen songs and fans are thrilled.

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