This track is about how Swift felt her relationship with Alwyn was the real deal after everything she's been through. She references some of the bad situations she'd been in before: "Luck of the draw only draws the unlucky / And so I became the butt of the joke / I wounded the good and I trusted the wicked." That's acknowledging some of the drama she caused by writing songs to get back at her exes and, of course, her feud with West and Kim Kardashian. But now it's in the past.
On the title track of her 2012 album "Red," Swift sings that "loving him was red," and her 2017 album "Reputation" was themed with the colours black and white. "Daylight" is about how much she's lived and learned. "I once believed love would be burning red," she sings at one point. She also sings, "I once believed love would be black and white." Both times, she admits she was wrong: "But it's golden / Like daylight."