Taylor Swift - Daylight

Written By: Taylor Swift

Produced By: Jack Antonoff & Taylor Swift

In the final song on her album Lover, Taylor Swift sings about struggling through previous relationships, beginning to doubt her ability to find true love, until she meets someone who brightens her life in a new way.

She refers to being unlucky in love in the past, but when she meets her new partner, she only wants to focus on them and their happiness together.

With a slow build to a smooth, rich pop melody, “Daylight” echoes the dawn of a new consciousness for Swift. “I don’t want to look at anything else now that I saw you,” she sings, content: “I’ve been sleeping so long in a 20-year dark night, and now I see daylight.” Throughout Lover — and her other albums — color plays an important role in Swift’s lyrics; there are mentions of blue eyes, pink skies, neon walls, and here, golden daylight. She ends with a spoken outro: “I just think that… you are what you love.” It comes across as a benediction.

[Verse 1]

My love was as cruel as the cities I lived in

Everyone looked worse in the light

There are so many lines that I've crossed unforgiven

I'll tell you the truth but never goodbye

[Chorus]

I don't wanna look at anything else now that I saw you

I don't wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you

I've been sleepin' so long in a twenty-year dark night

And now I see daylight, I only see daylight

[Verse 2]

Luck of the draw only draws the unlucky

And so I became the butt of the joke

I wounded the good and I trusted the wicked

Clearin' the air, I breathed in the smoke

[Pre-Chorus]

Maybe you ran with the wolves and refused to settle down

Maybe I've stormed out of every single room in this town

Threw out our cloaks and our daggers because it's morning now

It's brighter now, now

[Chorus]

I don't wanna look at anything else now that I saw you

(I can never look away)

I don't wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you

(Things will never be the same)

I've been sleepin' so long in a twenty-year dark night

(Now I'm wide awake)

And now I see daylight (Daylight), I only see daylight (Daylight)

[Post-Chorus]

I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight

[Bridge]

And I can still see it all (In my mind)

All of you, all of me (Intertwined)

I once believed love would be (Black and white)

But it's golden (Golden)

And I can still see it all (In my head)

Back and forth from New York (Sneakin' in your bed)

I once believed love would be (Burnin' red)

But it's golden

Like daylight, like daylight

Like daylight, daylight

[Chorus]

I don't wanna look at anything else now that I saw you

(I can never look away)

And I don't wanna think of anything else now that I thought of you

(Things will never be the same)

I've been sleepin' so long in a twenty-year dark night

(Now I'm wide awake)

And now I see daylight (I see daylight), I only see daylight (Ah)

[Post-Chorus]

I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight

I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight (Ah)

(And I can still see it all)

I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight

(And I can still see it all, back and forth from New York)

I only see daylight, daylight, daylight, daylight

(I once believed love would be burning red)

[Outro]

Like daylight

It's golden like daylight

You gotta step into the daylight and let it go

Just let it go, let it go

[Spoken Outro]

I wanna be defined by the things that I love

Not the things I hate

Not the things I'm afraid of, I'm afraid of

Or the things that haunt me in the middle of the night

I, I just think that

You are what you love

What does "Daylight" by Taylor Swift mean? — The Pop Song Professor

I wrote ‘Daylight’ about the idea that, reputation, for me, aesthetically and thematically, felt like a very, very long night of storms and volcanic eruptions, floods, hurricanes, hail, tornadoes, endless fire, an asteroid hit. And so it felt like trying to figure out what’s what throughout all that. I did gain sort of an insight that I didn’t have before, which was like, even though all this stuff has happened and you, at times, feel really down about stuff that’s happened in your life or your past or whatever, letting it go is a really, really, really, important step. Even if you never fully get there. Reminding yourself to let things go as they present themselves, even if you can’t seem to let them go yet, is a helpful exercise. And realizing that you can find love in literally the worst times in your life. You can find friendship in the worst times in your life, you can find the best things in your life that you will have forever in temporary, really awful times that will pass. And so those were all the themes I was thinking about when I wrote this song, but I don’t think I was necessarily thinking about them because I wrote it really fast. But, I think about them now.

— Via the iHeartRadio Lover Album Release Party and Secret Session

Swift told Rolling Stone in August 2019 that she almost named the record after it:

It almost was [the title track]. I thought it might be a little bit too sentimental. […] I was kind of in my head referring to the album as Daylight for a while. But Lover, to me, was a more interesting title, more of an accurate theme in my head, and more elastic as a concept.

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