"The Great War" uses wartime language and floral symbolism to communicate loss and sacrifice.

"The Great War" is the first of seven deluxe tracks that Swift shared as a surprise, just three hours after "Midnights" was released.

"There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13," she told fans. "I'm calling them 3am tracks. Lately I've been loving the feeling of sharing more of our creative process with you, like we do with From The Vault tracks. So it's 3am and I'm giving them to you now."

"Midnights (3am Edition)" features three songs, including "The Great War," that were produced by Aaron Dessner, Swift's primary collaborator throughout the "Folklore" and "Evermore" era.

The song begins with a vivid image: "My knuckles were bruised like violets."

Violets clearly call back to the imagery of "Lavender Haze," but the purple flowers also carry a symbolic history.

Towards the end of Act IV in "Hamlet," the tragic heroine Ophelia distributes flowers she has collected to important characters as a subtle method of passing judgment on their actions.

"I would give you some violets, but they withered all when my father died," she says.

Floral symbolism was very popular in Elizabethan theater; audiences would've known that violets were associated with faithfulness. Swift comparing her bruised knuckles to violets, then, could be a subversive way to communicate sorrow and a loss of faith in this relationship.

Violet symbolism also has roots in storytelling and art from Ancient Greece, popularized by the poet Sappho, who was known for writing about sapphic romance and desire.

To this day, violets are associated with lesbian love, which may shed some light on the female pronoun Swift uses a few lines later: "And maybe it was egos swinging / Maybe it was her."

Another line in the first verse, "Sucker punching walls, cursed you as I sleep-talked," recalls a similar image from "Long Story Short" ("The war of words I shouted in my sleep").

In the chorus, Swift sings of "all that bloodshed, crimson clover," possibly referencing the beloved love song "Crimson and Clover," originally recorded by Tommy James and the Shondells in 1968. (The song was later covered by Joan Jett, Cher, and Prince.)

"Crimson clover" could also be intended as a literal image — blood spilling over a field of clover, a flower that's heavily associated with good luck, and turning the green leaves red.

This could be intended as a continuation — and desecration — of the story told in "Ivy," in which clover is used as a symbol of hope, escape, and the promise of freedom ("Clover blooms in the fields / Spring breaks loose, the time is near"). 

Swift continues her coded floral communication in the third verse: "Say a solemn prayer, place a poppy in my hair / There's no morning glory, it was war, it wasn't fair."

Poppies symbolized medicine, healing, sleep, and dreams in Ancient Greek mythology. Today, they're largely associated with remembrance, especially as it relates to a soldier's sacrifice, their bright-red petals representing the blood shed during battle.

In Victorian literature, especially Victorian women's poetry, morning glories were used to communicate unrequited love, or love that continues after death.

Throughout the song, Swift deepens her wartime metaphor with phrases associated with combat and death, including "good faith treaties" and "soldier down."

She also mentions "playing with fire" and "burning embers," again drawing a parallel with "Ivy" and its mingled images of passion and danger ("It's a goddamn blaze in the dark / And you started it / You started it / So yeah, it's a war / It's the goddamn fight of my life / And you started it"). 

In the bridge, Swift sings of betrayal in the midst of the (lavender) haze.

"Somewhere in the haze, got a sense I'd been betrayed / Your finger on my hairpin triggers," she sings.

The actual term is "hair trigger," which means a gun has been modified to be extra sensitive to pressure. Swift intentionally changed the phrase to "hairpin triggers" as a clear callback to "Right Where You Left Me," one of two bonus tracks on "Evermore" ("I swear you could hear a hairpin drop / Right when I felt the moment stop").

"Dropping hairpins" is a well-known euphemism for dropping queer clues.

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