Exile (feat. Bon Iver)
- Daniella Rojas
- Feb 28
- 4 min read
Updated: May 7
"Exile" is the fourth song on Taylor Swift’s Folklore album and the only song with a feature. It is one of my favorite songs for analyzing how miscommunication can lead to tragic outcomes in a relationship. “Exile” is set after a breakup in a relationship, when two ex-lovers reencounter, and one of them has already moved on at short notice. It is gut-wrenching, but in a beautiful way. The most thrilling part of the song is the ability to see both points of view; it is similar to “The Last Time” from Swift’s Red album.
“I can see you standing, honey, with his arms around your body, laughin', but the joke's not funny at all.” Exile begins with Justin Vernon (Bon Iver) singing. He is seeing his ex already with someone new. “And it took you five whole minutes, to pack us up and leave me with it. Holdin' all this love out here in the hall.” He’s wondering, ‘What happened?’ ‘Why did she already move on?’ ‘How did it all end?’
"I think I've seen this film before and I didn't like the ending.” He understands how breakups work, hence the line. “You're not my homeland anymore, so what am I defending now?” he mulls over what is worth fighting for if she’s no longer his. “You were my town, now I'm in exile, seein' you out. I think I've seen this film before.” She used to be his everything, but due to complications, they are no longer together, and he is forced to watch her go.
"I can see you starin', honey. Like he's just your understudy. Like you'd get your knuckles bloody for me.” The second verse begins with Taylor presenting a different perspective on the song. She’s seeing her ex while in a new relationship, his replacement. It seems that if her ex were different, he’d do anything for her, even fight her current boyfriend to win her back. “Second, third, and hundredth chances. Balancin' on breaking branches. Those eyes add insult to injury,” but he remains still, with saddened eyes. She gave him every opportunity to get her back, but he didn’t even bother. They were already walking a thin line, and she was seeking how long it would last before breaking.
“I think I've seen this film before, and I didn't like the ending.” As this line repeats, from her perspective now, they both understand how this has happened before, “I'm not your problem anymore,” but in this case, she’s no longer his homeland; she shouldn’t feel bad about moving on. “So who am I offending now?” Why should she feel compelled to fight for their relationship if they are no longer together? “You were my crown, now I'm in exile, seein' you out. I think I've seen this film before.” He was everything to her before things happened, and she is driven to remove herself from the situation.
“So I'm leaving out the side door” (where everything finally strings together, the downfall.) She has decided to leave. “So step right out,” he said, agreeing with her decision to leave. “There is no amount of crying I can do for you.” He doesn’t even fight for her to stay; he simply agrees with her decision. “All this time, we always walked a very thin line.” They both realized things were going south a while ago but were in denial. “You didn't even hear me out (You didn't even hear me out),” he says, claiming she didn’t listen, but the faded back vocals heard throughout the song show that he didn't bother hearing her out and instead talked over her. “You never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs).” Of the many signs she gave him, he ignored every single one of them. “All this time, I never learned to read your mind (Never learned to read my mind).” they seemed to consistently argue and never agreed on anything. He never ‘learned’ to read her mind, never once thought from her perspective. “I couldn't turn things around (You never turned things around),” he ‘tried’ to change things for the sake of their relationship, but she claims he never even tried. “'Cause you never gave a warning sign (I gave so many signs). So many signs, so many signs. You didn't even see the signs.” She gave him so many signs, but he didn’t mind seeing them or looking into them, wondering why things ended the way they did.
Something I found interesting about the bridge was how you can see the relationship breaking down. Because it begins already broken up, and you can see the miscommunication in the argument they had before calling things off, seeing both points of view is beautifully heartbreaking. The outro of the song is the bridge repeating itself, but you can feel the song as it intensifies. Towards the end of the song, notice how the last few lines are from the guy’s point of view, the repetition of “you never gave a warning sign,” considering that during the argument, he was always the one who finished talking, so he could say he was right.
Swift, Taylor, and Bon Iver. “Exile.” folklore. Republic Records, 2020. Apple Music, https://music.apple.com/us/album/exile-feat-bon-iver/1524801260?i=1524801587
