"The Very First Night" finds Swift fondly looking back on the good memories from a relationship, coupled with the longing of wishing to go back in time and restore that love. It seems lyrics from the song like, "I drive down different roads / But they all lead back to you," "They weren't riding in the car when we both fell", and "Dance in the kitchen, chase me down through the hallway", cross-reference Swift's other song like "The Last Time" and "All Too Well", which makes us believe that "The Very First Night" is another song that Gyllenhaal inspired.
However, the lyrics "We were built to fall apart" and "Didn't read the note on the Polaroid picture" seem to mirror lyrics from "Out Of The Woods" off 1989 instead, which is presumably about Harry Styles.