“august” was the first song Taylor Swift wrote among the three Folklore tracks forming the James, Betty, and Augustine story.
The connected narrative also includes “Cardigan” and “Betty.” Each song presents a different viewpoint within a fictional teenage love triangle: “Cardigan” centers on Betty, “Betty” presents James’s perspective, and “august” follows the unnamed summer-romance character.
Swift wrote the songs as imagined stories rather than direct accounts of her personal life. She referred privately to the “august” narrator as Augusta or Augustine, but the character is not given a definite name in the song itself.
The writing order is distinct from the album’s track order and from the order in which listeners may discover the songs. “august” appears as track 8, while “Cardigan” opens the album and “Betty” appears later in the standard sequence.