Taylor explained the meaning of this tender post-break-up song on her website: "The song 'Last Kiss' is sort of like a letter to somebody. You say all of these desperate, hopeless feelings that you have after a break-up. Going through a break-up you feel all of these different things. You feel anger, and you feel confusion, and frustration. Then there is the absolute sadness. The sadness of losing this person, losing all the memories, and the hopes you had for the future. There are times when you have this moment of truth where you just admit to yourself that you miss all these things. When I was in one of those moments I wrote this song."
Taylor capitalized seemingly random letters in the printed lyrics for each song. These spell out little messages, usually about who or what inspired the tune. In this instance the message spells out "FOREVER AND ALWAYS." This was the title of a song Taylor wrote about the ending of her relationship with Joe Jonas whom she dated in the summer of 2008. The Queen of Country Pop also addresses the girl who stole Joe from her on Better than Revenge, another track on Speak Now.
Another indication that Taylor is addressing Joe Jonas in this song is she sings about remembering how "I ran off the plane that July 9th" into his arms. The singer flew to Dallas on July 9, 2008 to attend a Jonas Brothers show.
Taylor was asked during an interview with Jam! Music if she worries about revealing too much in her songs. She replied: "Throughout all of the changes that have happened in my life, one of the priorities I've had is to never change the way I write songs and the reasons I write songs. I write songs to help me understand life a little more. I write songs to get past things that cause me pain. And I write songs because sometimes life makes more sense to me when it's being sung in a chorus, and when I can write it in a verse."
