Who are Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith? Taylor Swift name-drops literary personalities in The Tortured Poets Department title track

Taylor Swift's eleventh studio album, The Tortured Poets Department, dropped on Friday, April 19. The singer mentioned two literary personalities, Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith in the album's title track.

The Tortured Poets Department is the second song in the album, where Swift mentions poets Patti Smith, Dylan Thomas and a location that connects the two personalities, Chelsea Hotel. The lyrics are:

“I laughed in your face and said, ‘You’re not Dylan Thomas. I’m not Patti Smith. This ain’t the Chelsea Hotel. We’re modern idiots.”

Dylan Thomas is a Welsh writer and poet best known for his lyrical and emotional poetry. Thomas was influenced by the modernist works of T.S Elliot, James Joyce, and W.B Yeats among others. His best works include And death shall have no dominion and Do not go gentle into that good night.

Patti Smith is an author, poet, and songwriter who's still active today at 77. She was a part of the punk-rock movement and is best known for works such as Because the Night.

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Taylor Swift connects Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith to Manhattan's Chelsea Hotel

Taylor Swift mentioned the Chelsea Hotel in the title track alongside Smith and Thomas. The iconic hotel is situated in Manhattan and is known to have housed several poets, authors, and other literary personalities. Artists like Mark Twain, Arthur Miller, Bob Dylan, and Jackson Pollock reportedly lived in the hotel.

The 12-storey Chelsea Hotel was built in the 19th century in Manhattan. It is still known to be the favorite spot of authors, poets, and painters. Both Dylan Thomas and Patti Smith reportedly lived in the hotel.

In The Tortured Poets Department, Swift says that "they" are not Dylan Thomas or Patti Smith and they are not in the "Chelsea Hotel." It is unknown who the lyrics are addressed to. Swift goes on to say they are "modern idiots."

A Harvard professor, Stephanie Burt, who takes a three-paper class on Taylor Swift, gave her explanation of the lyrics (via USA Today).

“Swift is not only telling (the guy in the song), you're not that talented.” She's saying, let's not be the kind of artists who make our self-destructive, tortured natures central to our art, which invites everyone to look at what a mess we are.”

Burt further explained that Patti Smith is the one you mention if you want to talk about "a woman onstage who is absolutely magnetic and a poet with a capital P."

Dylan Thomas is mentioned in the lyrics as a "a romantic, self destructive poet who had the talent to back it up", but "had absolutely no self-care skills who made everything too much."

As per Burt, Taylor Swift's message is not be "self-destructive" artists and leave it to "modern idiots."

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Taylor Swift released a surprise double album The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology with 15 new songs

Shortly after releasing The Tortured Poets Department, Taylor Swift surprised her fans at 2 am EST by revealing that it is a "double album." The singer released 15 additional tracks as part of the new version, The Tortured Poets Department: The Anthology.

Announcing the release of TTPD's second installment, the singer wrote on Instagram:

"I’d written so much tortured poetry in the past 2 years and wanted to share it all with you, so here’s the second installment of TTPD: The Anthology. 15 extra songs. And now the story isn’t mine anymore… it’s all yours."

Writing about her new album on social media, Taylor said The Tortured Poets Department is an "anthology of new works" that talks about "events, opinions and sentiments from a fleeting and fatalistic moment in time".

She further wrote the "writer" of the album is of the "firm belief" that "our tears become holy in the form of ink on a page." Once someone speaks of their "saddest story", they can be "free of it, Taylor Swift wrote on Instagram.