The Unromantic Truth About Tortured Poets

It was hard to not take Taylor Swift’s Tortured Poets Department announcement personally. Very rarely have I felt — dare I even invoke the phrase — culturally appropriated by someone so prominent in the media. But in seeing a pop star who changes eras with meticulous and mercurial dexterity claim to be a “tortured poet”, I had an undeniable sense of feeling she was treading on the proverbial toes of my metrical feet.