“Holy Ground” is the the first of two of Swift’s songs that Jeff Bhasker has produced, the first being “The Lucky One.” When she started writing the song, she knew she wanted Bhasker to produce the track. Taylor contacted him and he agreed to produce the song. As a result, “Holy Ground” sounds different from any of Taylor’s previous work.

In the song, Taylor is looking back at a whirl wind relationship from her past. She’s realizing just because the relationship didn’t last, doesn’t mean it wasn’t a good memory or that it was wasted time. The memories are still important and sacred. Just because Taylor and the guy weren’t meant to be, doesn’t mean she can’t look back fondly at the time they spent together. Every mistake is a lesson learned.

The song’s hidden message is “When you came to the show in SD” which leads to assumption that this song was penned about Joe Jonas who was spotted at Taylor’s San Diego show during the Speak Now tour