Among Taylor Swift’s three connected Folklore songs, she wrote “august” first.
Swift created “august” as part of the fictional story later completed by “cardigan” and “betty.” The song introduces the perspective of the unnamed girl in the summer romance, while the other two tracks develop Betty’s and James’s viewpoints.
The writing order is different from the order many listeners encounter the songs. “cardigan” was released as Folklore’s lead single and became the most prominent early entry in the storyline, but “august” was the first of the three that Swift wrote.
The song’s origin also reflects the album’s collaborative process. Antonoff supplied the instrumental, Swift wrote the lyrics intuitively, and the imagined characters helped her explore a story rather than autobiography.