Turns out Taylor Swift was spot on naming her forthcoming albumThe Tortured Poets Department.
The company Ancestry, which helps people trace their genealogy, has found evidence that Swift is distantly related to the famed poet Emily Dickinson.
“We need to calm down…but how can we when we have BIG news!?” a post on the Ancestry Instagram account reads. “Renowned American poets Taylor Swift and Emily Dickinson are 6th cousins, three times removed.”
READ MORE: Actor confirms shock romance at Taylor Swift show
CNN has reached out to Swift’s representative for comment. The news was first announced on NBC’s Today.
Dickinson, who lived from 1830 to 1886, is known for her poems such as “Because I could not stop for Death” and “‘Hope’ is the thing with feathers.”
The writer, who should have been a celebrity in her own time, even wrote about fame like her distant cousin. “Success is counted sweetest/By those who ne’er succeed/ To comprehend a nectar/ Requires sorest need,” Dickinson wrote in her poem, “Success is counted sweetest.”
READ MORE: The Hollywood selfie that wouldn’t happen today
“Swift and Dickinson both descend from a 17th century English migrant (Swift’s 9th great-grandfather and Dickinson’s 6th great-grandfather who was an early settler of Windsor, Connecticut),” according to Ancestry.
Swifties have long made the connection between the two women.
https://www.instagram.com/p/C4GILidMBpB/?utm_source=ig_embed&
Her album Evermore was announced in 2020 on December 10, which happens to be Dickinson’s birthday. The title is believed by some to have been inspired by Dickinson’s poem One Sister Have I in Our House, which includes the word “forvermore.”
Two years after that announcement, Swift referenced the legendary writer in the her acceptance speech for the songwriter-artist of the decade award from the Nashville Songwriters Association International.
Swift explained that the lyrics she writes fall under three genre categories: quill lyrics, fountain pen lyrics and glitter gel pen lyrics, which reference the writing instrument she imagines she would have been holding while penning the lyrics.
READ MORE: Claire quit her corporate job. It led her to Taylor Swift
“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,” Swift said, noting that her single Ivy from Evermore would fall under that category.
Welcome to Swift’s historical era.