Taylor Swift is related to fellow tortured poet Emily Dickinson, according to Ancestry

Turns out "The Tortured Poets Department" is a family affair.

Apparently poetry is hereditary — just ask Taylor Swift, the heralded lyricist who shares a bloodline with a very famous poet.

During Monday’s broadcast of TODAY, genealogy company Ancestry revealed that the Evermore singer is related to a major figure in American literature: Emily Dickinson, the prolific poetess who penned nearly 1800 poems in her time. The pair are sixth cousins, three times removed.

“Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th century English immigrant (Swift’s ninth great-grandfather and Dickinson’s sixth great-grandfather who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut),” Ancestry shared with TODAY. “ Swift’s ancestors remained in Connecticut for six generations until her part of the family eventually settled in northwestern Pennsylvania, where they married into the Swift family line.”

Long story short, the title of Swift’s upcoming album — The Tortured Poets Department — is even more fitting than Swifties realized. And as with any Swift-related revelation, this discovery comes with enough easter eggs to convince fans that the pop star has been the mastermind of her own genealogy all along.

For one, Swift previously mentioned Dickinson when discussing her writing style in 2022. While receiving the Songwriter-Artist of the Decade Award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International, she explained that she has established three genres to categorize the kind of lyrics she typically writes: Quill Lyrics, Fountain Pen Lyrics, and Glitter Gel Pen Lyrics..

“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,” she told the audience.

Fans have also speculated that the 19th century poet influenced Swift’s ninth studio album, Evermore. Not only did the singer announce the album’s release on Dickinson's birthday, Dec. 10, 2020, but the title itself may be a reference to her poem, "One Sister Have I in Our House.”

The final line reads, "From out the wide night's numbers — Sue forevermore!"

Social media also contains plenty of theories about Swift’s song “Ivy,” which some fans believe is directly inspired by Dickinson’s love affair with her sister-in-law, Susan Gilbert. Fanning the flames of that particular line of thinking, the song was featured in an episode of AppleTV’s Dickinson, the Hailee Steinfeld-led series that fictionalizes the poet’s life and relationship with Sue.

Swift’s (appropriately titled) upcoming album is set to be released on April 19.

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