Before The Life of a Showgirl was ever a glimmer in Taylor Swift’s eye, the singer peppered her music with references to classic literature.

As early as 2006, Swift included a nod to Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken” in the song “The Outside” from her self-titled debut album. “I tried to take the road less traveled by,” she sang. “But nothing seems to work the first few times, am I right?”

The lines were the first of many literary references to come, with Swift later folding in allusions to works by authors including Charles Dickens and Nathaniel Hawthorne. Perhaps most famously, her Fearless single “Love Story” borrows from William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet. In 2010, Swift said that studying the play in ninth grade partially inspired the track.

“A lot of people who gra

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