The Archer or the Prey, We Will Always Stay: Analysis of Taylor Swift’s “The Archer”

Taylor Swift performing “The Archer” at the Eras Tour, Houston, night one.

Photo by Abby McMorris

Imagine yourself alone and isolated on a quiet, deserted island, the silence only filled by your own thoughts. Thoughts of self-deprecation, ironically sprinkled in with hope and confidence. The bitter thoughts, littered with some of the more sweet. The thoughts that walk the line between fighting and giving up. Questions and confessions that are more than honest, and you fear no one else possesses them — ones that expose your most profound, phantom-like secrets.

That’s what I picture when I listen to my most treasured Taylor Swift song. I picture Swift as the albatross she is, unaccompanied with nothing but a fountain pen and a piece of parchment, writing “The Archer.”

“The Archer” was devastatingly cut from the setlist of the Eras Tour when Swift began the European leg in May 2024, likely making space for the new The Tortured Poets Department era to be included. However, on July 4th, 2024, Swift did all of us perpetually anxious, self-loathing yet ironically confident girls a favor. Swift played “The Archer” as a mash-up with “Question…?” during her acoustic set, also infamously known as the “surprise song” section of the concert. 

So, when Swift decided to grace us with a piano rendition of “The Archer” as a surprise song months after it being removed from the Eras Tour setlist, I figured it was time to spotlight and analyze one of Swift’s most vulnerable, relatable, idiosyncratic songs within her entire discography. 

“The Archer” reveals to listeners what feels like Swift’s diary — a showcase of her most naked, soul-bearing, tortured thoughts and woeful, wide-eyed wonders that feel all too similar to your own. Before “The Archer” was cut from the Eras Tour setlist, it was the sixth song of the concert, which marked the end of the Lover era. Watching Swift perform “The Archer” brought me straight to the imaginary island where I pictured her writing it. Despite being in a crowd of tens of thousands, it felt like it was only Swift and me in the room. Ironically, I have a feeling most Swifties felt the same way.

A perfectly executed fan project at one of Swift’s recent Argentina shows proves just that. Swifties, including her boyfriend Travis Kelce, held up signs that read, “WE WILL STAY,” during Swift’s performance of “The Archer.” This effortful gesture carried out by Swifties was in response to Swift’s lyric, “Who could ever leave me, darling? But who could stay?” The Argentinian Swifties got it right — we will, in fact, always stay. 

Swift’s performance of “The Archer” is simple yet powerful, embodying the all-encompassing feeling of being unsure if you’re too much or not enough, strong or weak, loved or hated. Her performance is isolated — it’s only her on stage, in her glittering prime, singing about what’s hidden behind her sparkles. 

Each verse carries a different meaning, and poetically puts feelings that seem impossible to articulate into words. To begin, the first verse reads, “Combat, I'm ready for combat…I say I don't want that, but what if I do? 'Cause cruelty wins in the movies…I've got a hundred thrown-out speeches I almost said to you.” 

To begin to analyze this verse is like unpacking for your first year of college — daunting, never-ending, yet comforting and exciting. 

So without further ado, let’s get into it. 

These boots were made for “pacing like a ghost.”

Photo by Abby McMorris

This first verse encapsulates a feeling many women know all too well: being told to stay quiet when all you want to do is speak up. Take the hits when all you want to do is punch back. Say what you have to say but don’t let it leave your journal’s pages. Imagine yourself in a dream world but recognize it for what it is: a dream. 

That first verse leads perfectly into the next: “Easy they come, easy they go…I jump from the train, I ride off alone…I never grew up, it's getting so old…Help me hold onto you.”

The bitter acceptance that comes with leaving and losing people as we move through life and the self-doubt and depreciation that comes with it is what this next verse articulates. People come and go like waves on a beach and with that, we jump from trains and self-sabotage because we believe we have to leave before we’re left. 

Feeling almost too in tune with your inner child is something Swift describes in this verse and notably mentions in two other songs, “But Daddy I Love Him” and “I Hate It Here.” In those songs, she self-diagnoses as a “precocious” child — a child who’s highly skilled, intelligent, and ahead of their peers. As I interpret these lyrical parallels, I decode that Swift was recognized as a child “wise beyond her years” (another lyrical parallel from “The Manuscript”), and as an adult felt like she couldn’t quite keep up. 

Now we move to the chorus: “I've been the archer…I've been the prey…Who could ever leave me, darling? But who could stay?” 

Through this verse, Swift highlights the ironic confidence that blankets the ever-so-painful questions and confessions that haunt us at night. Believing you’re the best, but also waiting for your “true self” to be found out and left before you can leave. Remembering the ones you’ve shot with your bow, but also remembering you’ve been victim to the arrow too.

The next verse is as follows: “Dark side, I search for your dark side…But what if I'm alright, right, right, right here? And I cut off my nose just to spite my face…Then I hate my reflection for years and years.” 

Swift has ever-so delicately articulated exactly what it feels like to search for chaos amidst peace. When your comfort level is being uncomfortable, accepting love for what it is can feel like a cruel joke. And if you get far enough to accept the love of another, that doesn’t usually equal loving yourself any more than you already did.

Swift continues to poetically and painfully describe what anxiety can feel like in her next verse: “I wake in the night, I pace like a ghost…The room is on fire, invisible smoke…And all of my heroes die all alone…Help me hold onto you.”

Sleepless nights. Feeling alone in your struggles. Desperate for someone to stay. Through this verse, Swift extends her hand and says, “It happens to me too.”

After the chorus, the next verse follows: “'Cause they see right through me…They see right through me…They see right through…Can you see right through me? They see right through…They see right through me…I see right through me…I see right through me.”

As the story goes, Swift feels, just like so many of us in our darkest hours, that she’s been “found out.” Her intentions and her true self have been exposed and deemed unacceptable. However, I also find this lyric can have a double meaning. Does Swift also mean that no one sees the true her? That she doesn’t know who she really is? 

As the song is nearing its end, the final verse before the last rendition of the chorus leaves chills: “All the king's horses, all the king's men…Couldn't put me together again…'Cause all of my enemies started out friends…Help me hold onto you.” 

As a long-time Swiftie, Taylor Swift and her music have carried me through many trials in life and kept me together when I was on the brink of falling apart. So, it was shocking to realize that sometimes the ones performing are doing exactly that: performing. Swift is just as much a human as the rest of us — she’s watched people put a knife in her back as they leave her to patch the wound. Sometimes she feels like she can’t hold herself together and needs to hold onto someone else.

Taylor Swift performing “The Archer” to the ones who will always stay.

Photo by Abby McMorris

Each and every verse that ornaments “The Archer” and Swift’s performance of it at the Eras Tour as part of the setlist and also as a surprise song showcases her innate poeticism, envious vulnerability, artistry, sheer strength, and talent.

As “The Archer” arrives at its conclusion, Swift answers her own question: “Who could stay? You could stay…Combat, I'm ready for combat.” Whether Swift was talking to her long-time lover, her truest friends, her family, or her fans, Swifties let Swift know that she didn’t even need to ask.

We would stay.