I need clarification.

[maculategiraffe]

So I was told by one of my students that the story of Psyche and Cupid (which we're studying right now) was "soooo romantic, just like that song, Love Story, by Taylor Swift!" so I went and listened to that song to test the veracity of that claim, and it's catchy as hell and all, but I have to say, I am really confused as to what actually happens in the "Love Story."

We were both young when I first saw you
I close my eyes and the flashback starts
I'm standing there
On a balcony in summer air

I see the lights, see the party, the ball gowns
I see you make your way through the crowd
And say hello
Little did I know

That you were Romeo, and you were throwing pebbles
And my daddy said "Stay away from Juliet"
And I was crying on the staircase
Begging you please don't go

And I said

"Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story, baby, just say yes"

So I sneak out to the garden to see you
We keep quiet 'cause we're dead if they knew
So close your eyes
Escape this town for a little while

'Cause you were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter
And my daddy said "Stay away from Juliet"
But you were everything to me
I was begging you please don't go

And I said

"Romeo, take me somewhere we can be alone
I'll be waiting, all there's left to do is run
You'll be the prince and I'll be the princess
It's a love story, baby, just say yes

Romeo, save me, they're tryin' to tell me how to feel
This love is difficult, but it's real
Don't be afraid, we'll make it out of this mess
It's a love story, baby, just say yes"

I got tired of waiting
Wondering if you were ever coming around
My faith in you was fading
When I met you on the outskirts of town

And I said

"Romeo, save me, I've been feeling so alone
I keep waiting for you but you never come
Is this in my head, I don't know what to think"
He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring

And said,

"Marry me, Juliet, you'll never have to be alone
I love you, and that's all I really know
I talked to your dad, go pick out a white dress
It's a love story, baby, just say yes"

Cause we were both young when I first saw you

Okay... so as best as I can figure out, they're really young when they meet (possibly at the prom? With the "ball gowns?" Nobody wears ball gowns to a regular "party," do they?) and that's why the dad doesn't approve at first? Because they're too young? So "Juliet" spends, like, years sneaking out to see "Romeo" in defiance of her family's wishes, and begging him to run away with her, but he continually says no, and eventually she's like, "Goddammit, kid, sack up already" and then he proposes? Because now they're old enough? (Because now apparently the dad is cool with it, so they must be older, or maybe it's just that Romeo has proved his honorable intentions by producing a ring.) And Romeo's like "Silly kitten, you should have realized I was just waiting until you were legal, and now us men have settled things between us so that you can go shopping for a pretty dress, which, thanks to my superhuman forbearance in the matter of your jailbait ass, can still be white." Is that it?

Okay, because even if that's it, I still don't get the line "You were Romeo, I was a scarlet letter." Is that really the line? Because that makes no sense. Is Juliet, like, the scarlet woman of the village? Is being seen with her going to ruin Romeo's reputation? Surely that is not what they're going for here. Or is it just because she is in fact jailbait, and Romeo is not? But they were both young... maybe Romeo was less young?

Oy, these kids today and their Taylor Swift and their Twilight and their Hannah Montana... *wanders off muttering and shaking cane*