Epiphany

## Lyric Video

**epiphany** is the thirteenth track of Taylor Swift's eight album folklore. It was released on July 24, 2020.

## Meaning and Background

When Taylor wrote this song, she felt like there needed a string arrangement, because they were near the end of the album and all the songs were piano and acoustic. She felt like there needed to be a song unlike anything she has done before. Taylor had recently done research on her grandfather who fought in WWII, but never talked about it. Her dad and uncles did research and found out that he's been through the worst. She then thought about what could happen to make you not able to speak about something. She realized that there are people working at the hospital right now, during the COVID-19 pandemic, who are having this kind of trauma they must never want to speak about. Taylor saw this as an opportunity to tell that story.

The first verse is the trauma that follows being in a war. “Keep your helmet, keep your life, son” resembles that in a battle, you have to keep going no matter how hurt you are. “Just a flesh wound, here’s your rifle” shows that the soldiers severely wounded, and yet it’s brushed off and the need to keep going. “Crawling up the beaches now” shows that the enemy has come. “Sir I think he’s bleeding out” shows that a soldiers dying, but one soldiers well-being is brushed off because one soldier isn’t the whole war, but thousands of soldiers die for a war. “And some things you just can’t speak about” means that after the war, you cannot speak of the trauma you faced.

The chorus represents that all the soldiers are In this together. One minute they’re breathing, the next they’ve fallen down.

The second verse depicts the nurses and doctor’s trauma in the hospital. “Something med school did not cover” most likely refers to med school not telling you the horrors of being a nurse/doctor. “Someone’s daughter, someone’s mother” means that the patient is an important person to other people, and it would leave a scar if they were to die. “Holds your hand through plastic now” shows that the sickness got in the way, and they have to wear gloves to touch their hand, so they don’t get what they have. “Doc I think she’s crashing out” is a nod to verse one when the soldier was bleeding out, but in this case she’s dying from illness. “And some things you just can’t speak about” is the same line from verse one, meaning the same thing, but in this case, the trauma from working at the Hospital.

The bridge is really both sides of this song. “Only twenty minutes to sleep-“means that at a hospital, you barely have any time to rest, because you need to take care of the patients, and in the war, you barely have any rest time because you need to fight. “-but you dream of some epiphany” means they dream of a brighter time. “Just one glimpse of relief-“ means they finally get to breathe for a second and have a slight bit of joy. “-to make some sense of what you’ve seen.” means to even out the joy with the trauma, but in reality, the have seen more trauma than joy, but it feels good when you haven’t had it.

## Lyrics

**[Verse 1]**
Keep your helmet, keep your life, son
Just a flesh wound, here's your rifle
Crawling up the beaches now
"Sir, I think he's bleeding out"
And some things you just can't speak about

**[Chorus]**
With you I serve, with you I fall down, down
Watch you breathe in, watch you breathing out, out

**[Verse 2]**
Something med school did not cover
Someone's daughter, someone's mother
Holds your hand through plastic now
"Doc, I think she's crashing out"
And some things you just can't speak about

**[Bridge]**
Only twenty minutes to sleep
But you dream of some epiphany
Just one single glimpse of relief
To make some sense of what you've seen

**[Chorus]**
With you I serve, with you I fall down, down
Watch you breathe in, watch you breathing out, out
With you I serve, with you I fall down, down
Watch you breathe in, watch you breathing out, out

**[Outro]**
Only twenty minutes to sleep
But you dream of some epiphany
Just one single glimpse of relief
To make some sense of what you've seen

## Videos

Taylor Swift – epiphany (Official Lyric Video)Epiphany (the long pond studio sessions)Epiphany

## References

1. ↑ folklore: the long pond studio sessions