Taylor Swift’s “The Fate Of Ophelia” Lyrics Are A Love Letter To Travis Kelce

Taylor Swift is getting a little Shakespearean — except this time, she’s writing a happy ending. On Oct. 3, the singer released her new single “The Fate of Ophelia,” which serves as the lead track of her 12th studio album, The Life of a Showgirl. With the song, she turns William Shakespeare’s famed play Hamlet on its head, but in the catchiest way possible.

On the groovy track, produced by Max Martin and Shellback, Swift tells her love story through the perspective of Shakespeare’s ill-fated Hamlet heroine Ophelia, something she teased when she announced the album on her fiancé Travis Kelce’s New Heights podcast. They even used the number 47, referring to Ophelia’s death scene that takes place in Act 4, Scene 7 of the play.

In the second verse, Swift tells Ophelia’s lore, saying she “lived in fantasy” except when it came to love. “But love was a cold bed full of scorpions, the venom stole her sanity,” she sings. As she poetically explains, Swift imagined herself as being destined for the same fate before her new lover rescued her.

“All that time, I sat alone in my tower, you were just honing your powers / Now I can see it all,” she sings on the chorus. “Late one night, you dug me out of my grave and saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia.”

It doesn’t take much decoding for even the most casual Swifties to figure out that she’s referring to Kelce, using one of his common sayings and nodding to his NFL team on the post-chorus. “Keep it one hundred on the land, the sea, the sky,” she chants. “Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes.”

Taylor’s “The Fate Of Ophelia” Lyrics

Read the full lyrics to Swift’s new single “The Fate Of Ophelia” below.

I heard you calling on the megaphone

You wanna see me all alone

As legend has it, you are quite the pyro

You light the match to watch it blow

And if you’d never come for me

I might’ve drowned in the melancholy

I swore my loyalty to me, myself, and I

Right before you lit my sky up

All that time, I sat alone in my tower

You were just honing your powers

Now I can see it all (see it all)

Late one night, you dug me out of my grave and

Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia (Ophelia)

Keep it one hundred on the land, the sea, the sky

Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes

Don’t care where the hell you been ‘cause now you’re mine

It’s ‘bout to be the sleepless night you’ve been dreaming of

The fate of Ophelia

The eldest daughter of a nobleman

Ophelia lived in fantasy

But love was a cold bed full of scorpions

The venom stole her sanity

And if you’d never call for me

I might’ve lingered in purgatory

You wrap around me like a chain, a crown, a vine

Pulling me into the fire

All that time, I sat alone in my tower

You were just honing your powers

Now I can see it all (See it all)

Late one night, you dug me out of my grave and

Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia (Ophelia)

Keep it one hundred on the land, the sea, the sky

Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes

Don’t care where the hell you been ‘cause now you’re mine

It’s ‘bout to be the sleepless night you’ve been dreaming of

The fate of Ophelia

‘Tis locked inside my memory

And only you possess the key

No longer drowning and deceived

All because you came for me

Locked inside my memory

And only you possess the key

No longer drowning and deceived

All because you came for me

All that time, I sat alone in my tower

You were just honing your powers

Now I can see it all (I can see it all)

Late one night, you dug me out of my grave and

Saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia (Ophelia)

Keep it one hundred on the land, the sea, the sky

Pledge allegiance to your hands, your team, your vibes

Don’t care where the hell you been ‘cause now you’re mine

It’s ‘bout to be the sleepless night you’ve been dreaming of

The fate of Ophelia

You saved my heart from the fate of Ophelia