Taylor Swift's 'My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys' Lyrics & Meaning Explained

26 April 2024, 16:56 | Updated: 29 August 2024, 16:14

Taylor Swift's world domination with her latest album ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ continues as we deep dive into the meaning behind the lyrics in her track ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys.

Taylor Swift must be sitting on her throne somewhere and laughing at how the world has lost its mind after she dropped her double albums ‘The Tortured Poets Department’ and ‘The Tortured Poets Department The Anthology.’

With 31 fresh tracks added to her repertoire, fans didn’t know where to look and what to do, it was an overwhelming experience for all involved.

With such a large amount of music released, certain songs must have been inspired by several different people, not limited to her ex Joe Alwyn, her summer fling Matty Healy and her current boyfriend Travis Kelce.

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But one track with an interesting title has been getting some attention. What is ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys’ about and what do the lyrics and the song mean? Here’s what we know.

What’s ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys’ about?

Online sleuths have been dissecting Taylor’s album song by song, lyric by lyric in order to figure out the deeper meaning behind every track and while ‘My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys’ is no different, we don’t have to look far.

In her track-by-track experience with Amazon Music, Taylor explained the meaning behind the track, saying “It’s a metaphor from the perspective of a child’s toy; being somebody’s favourite toy until they break you and then don’t want to play with you anymore.”

“Which is how a lot of us are in relationships where we are so valued by a person in the beginning, and then all of the sudden, they break us or they devalue us in their mind.”

“We’re still clinging on to ‘No no, no. You should’ve seen them the first time they saw me. They’ll come back to that. They’ll get back to that,’” she told the company.

In the chorus, Taylor sings, “My boy only breaks his favorite toys, toys, oh / I’m queen of sand castles he destroys, oh, oh / ‘Cause it fit too right, puzzle pieces in the dead of night / I should’ve known it was a matter of time, oh, oh.”

Taylor Swift's 'My Boy Only Breaks His Favourite Toys’ full lyrics

Oh, here we go again

The voices in his head

Called the rain to end our days of wild

The sickest army doll

Purchased at the mall

Rivulets descend my plastic smile

[Pre-Chorus]

But you should've seen him when he first got me

[Chorus]

My boy only breaks his favorite toys, toys, oh

I'm queen of sand castles he destroys, oh, oh

'Cause it fit too right, puzzle pieces in the dead of night

I should've known it was a matter of time, oh, oh

My boy only breaks his favorite toys, oh, oh

[Verse 2]

There was a litany of reasons why

We could've played for keeps this time

I know I'm just repeating myself

Put me back on my shelf

But first, pull the string

And I'll tell you that he runs

Because he loves me (He loves me)

[Pre-Chorus]

'Cause you should've seen him when he first saw me

[Chorus]

My boy (My boy), only breaks his favorite toys, toys, oh

I'm queen (I'm queen), of sand castles he destroys, oh, oh

'Cause I knew too much, there was danger in the heat of my touch

He saw forever, so he smashed it up, oh, oh

My boy (My boy), only breaks his favorite toys, oh, oh

[Bridge]

Once I fix me

He's gonna miss me

Once I fix me

He's gonna miss me

[Outro]

Just say when, I'd play again

He was my best friend down at the sandlot

I felt more when we played pretend

Than with all the Kens

'Cause he took me out of my box

Stole my tortured heart

Left all these broken parts

Told me I'm better off

But I'm not

I'm not, I'm not