The genealogy company Ancestry revealed on TODAY that Taylor Swift is related to the poet Emily Dickinson: “Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th century English immigrant (Swift’s 9th great-grandfather and Dickinson’s 6th great-grandfather who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut),” making them sixth cousins, three times removed.
Swift has compared her lyrics to Dickinson before. While discussing her categories of lyrics — Quill Lyrics, Fountain Pen Lyrics, and Glitter Pen Lyrics — she said, “If my lyrics sound like a letter written by Emily Dickinson’s great-grandmother while sewing a lace curtain, that’s me writing in the Quill genre.”
Taylor Swift’s song “Ivy” was also featured in Dickinson, the Apple TV show starring Hailee Steinfeld that reimagines Emily Dickinson’s life, and particularly her romance with her sister-in-law Susan Gilbert.