Taylor Swift, “Love Story,” and the Ancient Roman Art of Writing About Love

Overview

What do Taylor Swift and the poets of ancient Rome have in common? A lot, as it turns out: tortured love affairs, epic betrayals, and audiences determined to decode every last word.

Join renowned classicist David Levene for a spirited trip from ancient Rome to the Eras Tour — a lecture based on his wildly popular NYU course, “It’s a Love Story”: Reading Roman Elegy through Taylor Swift.

Bringing Swift’s songs into conversation with Roman love poets including Catullus and Propertius, Levene explores the surprising echoes between them: love as sickness, the sting of betrayal, the construction of a public persona, and the enduring impulse to search an artist’s work for clues about their private life. Along the way, he reveals how the comparison can make both Swift and the Romans look startlingly new. This is what happens when we read the world’s most famous songwriter alongside poets writing about heartbreak two thousand years ago — proving that Taylor Swift truly taps into being “Patient Zero” for timeless love stories.

From Roman elegy to The Tortured Poets Department, we’ve been turning desire, heartbreak and betrayal into art for thousands of years. Join Levene for a witty, illuminating look at what changes across the millennia — and what, in matters of the heart, stubbornly stays the same.

After the lecture, stay for a drink: your ticket includes access to a one-hour open bar. Wristbands will be provided for those 21+.