Maya Hawke Picks Two Taylor Swift Songs for a Poetry Anthology
Actor and musician Maya Hawke has named two Taylor Swift songs she would choose to represent Swift in an American anthology of poetry. She made the choice on Hot Ones, the web series in which guests answer questions while eating increasingly hot chicken wings.
Host Sean Evans asked which Swift track would best stand for her in such a collection. Hawke picked "But Daddy I Love Him" and "Betty." The first is from The Tortured Poets Department, the second from Folklore, and Billboard reported her remarks.
Hawke said the two songs "tell a full story like an epic poetry," without falling back on clichés. She described them as original stories that play with themes and historical ideas, complete journeys that she said were fully thought through. Epic poetry, the long narrative verse of older traditions, is a useful comparison for songs that carry a plot from start to finish.
The same interview took in another artist. Hawke said Eminem should be a blueprint for other musicians because of his rebellious, punk attitude toward the music industry, and she called him the "epic of our time."
Hawke has spoken about Swift before. In an interview with People published in July, she said Swift's music tells listeners they can take up space. In a Rolling Stone interview in May, she talked about making her album Maitreya Corso and about the artists who influenced her, including Swift and her Stranger Things co-star Sadie Sink.
Hawke's praise is a conversation starter, not a chart event. No anthology, publisher or tracklist has been announced, so the two songs remain a guest's pick on a snack-fuelled talk show. Still, the exchange shows how often musicians and writers borrow from each other's worlds, and how readily a song can be read like a poem.
