The Swiftie and The Scholar

We’ve made it to the third and final episode of our beloved Folklore Love Triangle! We hope you’ve enjoyed this little series as much as we have. This episode dives into all the poetry and themes of cardigan, and then Uncle Jerry wraps up all the themes and questions and answers found in these three songs. Works Cited: Rashomon Effect The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree – Karl G. Heider Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction – Marina Lambrou – Aff Link Disnarration and the performance of storytelling in Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore The Blind Man and The Elephant Split Narratives or Fragmented Narratives Enjambment  Epistrophe Anaphora The Longest Time – Billy Joel  Love Stinks – The J. Geils Band The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We’re back for the second installment of the folklore love triangle! Uncle Jerry really changed his tune on these lyrics, both as a poem and as a song, while Angela notices some “teenage diction” that she’s never picked up on before. Come back next week to wrap this all up with us! Works Cited: Rashomon Effect The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree – Karl G. Heider Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction – Marina Lambrou – Aff Link Disnarration and the performance of storytelling in Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore The Blind Man and The Elephant Split Narratives or Fragmented Narratives Winesburg, Ohio – Sherwood Anderson – Aff Link Spoon River Anthology – Edgar Lee Masters – Aff Link The Flowers of Evil – Charles Baudelaire – Aff Link Flipped (2010) Apophasis Hyperbole Book of Genesis The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

Friends, it's finally here! Over the next three episodes, we are diving into our beloved Folklore Love Triangle. First up is August. Uncle Jerry begins by talking about the narrative of these three songs and how they are woven together across the album, and then we dissect the poem of August.  These three episodes will all build on each other, and we’ll round out the discussion in week 3.  Works Cited: Rashomon Effect The Rashomon Effect: When Ethnographers Disagree – Karl G. Heider The Blind Man and The Elephant Disnarration and the performance of storytelling in Taylor Swift’s folklore and evermore Split Narratives or Fragmented Narratives Dramatic Irony Kenning The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We are getting angry and witchy today with mad woman from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, folklore. Uncle Jerry teaches us where the word hysteria comes from, how women have been written about for centuries, and how sometimes, we make our own monsters.  Listen to the song with us on Patreon! Works Cited: The Madwoman in the Attic – Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar – Aff Link In Medias Res: Definition and Examples To Start a Story in the Middle Dramatic Monologue Orion and Scorpius The Mourning Bride – William Congreve Summa Theologica – Thomas Aquinas Handlyng Synne – Robert Manning of Brunne Christian Caldwell, Woman Witchhunter Cassandra x mad woman x I Did Something Bad Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We have a much-requested poem for you in this episode! Uncle Jerry and Angela tackle The Albatross from The Tortured Poets Department, but first, Uncle Jerry lets us all know how disappointed he is with us as a class lololol. Oops! Join us as we discuss relationships in the public eye, and the journey of repudiation and redemption the song takes us on. Works Cited: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge Aubrey & Maturin – Jack O’Brian Book of Jonah Can’t Help Falling in Love – Elvis Presley Sir Gawain and the Green Knight Ode to the West Wind – Percy Bysshe Shelley Wild nights - Wild nights! – Emily Dickinson Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare Antigone – Sophocles Antony and Cleopatra – William Shakespeare The Bad Seed – William March – Aff Link The Bad Seed (1956) Matthew 13 The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link Richard Traverner Barchester Towers – Anthony Trollope – Aff Link Doggerel L'Albatros – Charles Baudelaire Frame Stories Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

Join us today for some lighthearted fun as we discuss Opalite from 2025’s The Life of a Showgirl. When Taylor Swift made this song a single and gave us the most perfect music video in the history of music videos, I felt like we had to cover it.  Be on the lookout for more Opalite content on Patreon! Works Cited: How to Write a Dizain  Iambs Trochees Pluperfect tense Possession – A.S. Byatt – Aff Link About Time (2013) Brooklyn (2015) Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

In this episode, we are taking a trip through the wildest winter with evermore from 2020. Uncle Jerry once again blows Angela’s mind with some folklore tropes relating to the dog days, and with some tidbits about Carl Jung’s theory on the Anima. If you’d like to see us listen to the song and enjoy the episode ad-free, you can now join us on Patreon! Works Cited: Cats (2019) Fats Waller Apostrophe literary device Gerard Manley Hopkins William Somerset Maugham The Burning of Lord Byron’s Memoirs Emily Dickinson – burned letters Jane Austen – burned letters Charles Dickens Bonfire The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link Carl Jung The Anima The Raven – Edgar Allan Poe Sonnet 29 – William Shakespeare Evermore lyric video Evermore x Peter Mashup Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

JOIN US ON PATREON! In this episode, we are learning all about Cassandra from Greek Mythology, and Cassandra, the Taylor Swift song. Uncle Jerry teaches us Cassandra’s story, we dive into all the rich metaphors, and Angela spills the beans about Taylor’s Kim and Kanye feud. There’s also an existential moment where Angela can’t deal with the question of one universal truth versus many personal truths. Works Cited: Taylor Swift and Kanye West Feud Cassandra in Greek Mythology The Iliad – Homer The Odyssey – Homer The Aeneid – Virgil Oresteia – Aeschylus The Greek Myths Box Edition – Robert Graves – Aff Link The Greek Myths: The Complete and Definitive Edition – Robert Graves – Aff Link Metamorphoses – Ovid Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad – Aff Link Sight Rhyme (or Eye Rhyme) Seneca's Agamemnon Cassandra Lyric Video Concrete PoetryThe Cassandra Complex The Apollo Archetype Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry Instagram

Affairs and graves and Emily Dickinson, oh my! Today, we are slowly meandering through Taylor Swift’s 202 poem, ivy. This track from evermore is full of ambiguous symbols, double meanings, and beautiful poetic elements. Uncle Jerry walks us through his many interpretations, and Angela’s brain short circuits through it all. Compassion – Miller Williams The Ways We Touch – Miller Williams – Aff link Down Where The Spirit Meets the Bone – Lucinda Williams Because I could not stop for Death – Emily Dickinson Porphyria’s Lover – Robert Browning Paradise Lost – John Milton Dickinson – Apple TV The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson – Aff Link Poem #14 – Emily Dickinson Emily Dickinson – Cynthia Griffin Wolff – Aff Link Instagram reel from @davidkristianp Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We’re off to Rhode Island by way of St. Louis in this episode! We’re breaking down Taylor Swift’s ‘the last great american dynasty’, a track from 2020’s folklore and the final song she submitted for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Uncle Jerry explains how his opinion on this poem changed from his first few readings, and Angela talks through her thoughts on the five submitted songs as a whole and why she thinks Taylor chose them. Works Cited: Blue Blood – Craig Unger A Rose for Emily – William Faulkner Rebekah Harkness’ Starfish Brooch The Outrageous Life of Rebekah Harkness, Taylor Swift’s High-Society Muse – Elise Taylor The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald – Aff Link The 100 Best Songs of 2020 – Pitchfork Jacob’s Pillow the last great american dynasty lyric video Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

In this episode, we are covering the fourth song that Taylor Swift submitted to be considered for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame—Blank Space. This 1989 track was one of her first pop hits, and Uncle Jerry finds the humorous and feminist lenses the poem was written through to be interesting to dissect. We’ll wrap the conversation up and talk about the songs as a whole collection next week. Works Cited: Tabula Rasa Dactyl Iamb Yellow Rose of Texas The Ballad of Jed Clampett Gilligan’s Island Theme Song Ballad Meter The Gallic Wars The Twelve Caesars – Suetonius – Aff Link The Madwoman in the Attic – Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar – Aff Link Jane Eyre: Deluxe Painted Edition – Charlotte Bronte – Aff Link The Yellow Wallpaper Blank Space Music Video Black Space Voice Memo Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We’re back and we’re kicking 2026 off with the three remaining tracks from Taylor’s submission to the Songwriters Hall of Fame. Spoiler alert: she was inducted! We’ll talk more about that in the final of these three episodes, but today we are focused on Anti-Hero. Uncle Jerry wonders about Taylor’s psychological status when writing this song and Angela has an A-ha! moment about how the music cues us to maybe feel differently than the lyrics alone would make us feel. Works Cited: First Person Deixis Charles Barkley Nike Commercial Beauty and the Beast (1991) Brigid Kaelin on Instagram Taylor talking about Anti-Hero Anti-Hero Music Video Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry Instagram

Happy New Year! With New Year’s Day on our episode release day, it only felt right to cover this masterpiece from Reputation. Uncle Jerry unknowingly connects this song with many others, blowing Angela’s mind once again.  We’re taking a short break after this episode, but we’ll see you back here in a few weeks with more poetry! Works Cited: Nine Princes in Amber – Roger Zelazny – Aff Link When Harry Met Sally (1989) A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens – Aff Link The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway – Aff Link A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning – John Donne Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

Merry Christmas! Sorry for the sad song choice, but it just felt right. We’re trudging down the road not taken with evermore’s ‘tis the damn season. Uncle Jerry isn’t so sure about this one at first, but he comes around by the end.  Works Cited: Trope Sweet Home Alabama (2002) The Family Man (2000) Frank Capra Autofiction Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger – Aff Link The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost Intertextuality Fire and Ice – Robert Frost Mending Wall – Robert Frost Look Homeward, Angel – Thomas Wolfe – Aff Link You Can’t Go Home Again – Thomas Wolfe – Aff Link Tis The Damn Season – Lyric Video Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

This is one of our most requested episodes, and here it is, just in time for the holidays! Uncle Jerry picked up on something that Angela had never noticed in the poem, and they get into a bit of the Tay-lore about what inspired The Tortured Poets Department.  Works Cited: e.e. cummings The Fates of Greek Mythology Just Kids – Patti Smith – Aff Link Breaking Up Is Hard to Do – Neil Sedaka Water Lilies – Claude Monet T.S. Eliot Misery (1990) Synecdoche Epistrophe Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

After all the talk about Romanticism in the last episode, we’re taking it to the New Romantics this week. Uncle Jerry teaches us all about the sociocultural movement of the late 1970s and 1980s called New Romanticism, featuring The Blitz Kids, the London club scene, and all the fun and freedom of the era. Works Cited: Neoclassicism vs. Romanticism David Bowie Boy George Annie Lennox The Blitz Kids Sweet Dreams: The Story of the New Romantics – Dylan Jones – Aff Link Spandau Ballet Steve Strange Best of New Romantics – Spotify Playlist Road to Ruin – The Ramones Heartbreak Is the National Anthem – Rob Sheffield – Aff Link Adam Ant Taylor Swift’s Manuscripts – Natali Barbani Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

We are letting Taylor Swift take us to the lakes today! These are the lyrics Angela used to convince Uncle Jerry to do this podcast, and his analysis does not disappoint. Come with us to learn all about Romanticism, The Lakes Poets, and how Taylor expertly weaves those two into this poem. Works Cited: A Brief Guide to Romanticism The Lake Poets Lyrical Ballads – William Wordsworth and Samuel Taylor Coleridge – Aff Link Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen – Aff Link Romanticism vs. Neoclassicism The Last of the Mohicans – 1992 William Wordsworth Samuel Taylor Coleridge Dorothy Wordsworth Dove Cottage Robert Southey Thomas De Quincy John Keats Percy Bysshe Shelley Tales from Shakespeare – Charles Lamb and Mary Lamb John Ruskin Harriet Martineau The Lake Isle of Innisfree – William Butler Yeats Sonnets from the Portuguese 20: Beloved, my Beloved, when I think – Elizabeth Barrett Browning Sonnets from the Portuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Full Book Aff Link The Passionate Shepherd to His Love – Christopher Marlowe Hartley Coleridge  Poetic Inversion Aurora Leigh – Elizabeth Barrett Browning Frankenstein – Mary Shelley – Aff Link I Wandered Lonely as a Cloud – William Wordsworth Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

We are finally covering a song from Speak Now! I’m so sorry to all the Speak Now stans that it took this long, but we got here. Uncle Jerry takes us through Taylor’s word choice throughout Enchanted, and how it reveals the specific fairy tale inspiration behind the song. Angela explains the lore of this being Taylor’s only completely self-written album and the moment that inspired the song.  Works Cited: Trochee / Trochaic Meter Smiling Faces Sometimes – The Undisputed Truth We Wear the Mask – Paul Laurence Dunbar Caesura Mending Wall – Robert Frost Indirect Discourse Metonymy Some Enchanted Evening – South Pacific Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

In this episode, we dig into one of most requested songs of late, The Black Dog. Taylor Swift mentioned in an interview that no one really understood this song, so we got Uncle Jerry on the case. Tune in to hear his take! Works Cited: Roland Barthes – The Death of The Author She Walks in Beauty – Lord Byron The Hound of the Baskervilles – Sir Arthur Conan Doyle – Aff Link The Malleus Maleficarum – Heinrich Kramer, James Sprenger – Aff Link For The Love of London Pubs – Doug Harper, Vic Norman, Andie Lafrentz – Aff Link The Pub: A Cultural Institution – Pete Brown – Aff Link Polysyndeton Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck – Aff Link To a Mouse – Robert Burns Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram

Well friends, I think we did it. Stay all the way to the end for a big surprise out of Uncle Jerry. In this episode, we're covering one of Angela's favorite TTPD tracks, Peter. Uncle Jerry finds layer after layer in the poem, and decides that this is a beautiful, melancholic reflection on the loss of innocence and youth, told through the lens of Peter Pan. Works Cited: Peter Pan - the Original 1911 Classic – J.M. Barrie – Aff Link Illustrated Peter Pan: Peter Pan in Kensington Gardens – J.M. Barrie – Aff Link The Dead Poets Society (1989) I'm sorry for the Dead—Today – Emily Dickinson  This Is Just To Say – William Carlos Williams In Just – Spring – e.e. cummings  Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening – Robert Frost Love's Labor's Lost – William Shakespeare  Lyric Video Peter Surprise Song Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

We’re taking it back to high school this week and exploring the country phenomenon that is Love Story. This is our first track from Fearless (2008), and Uncle Jerry explores all of the themes and tropes that are missing from the poem when compared to her current work, like complex metaphors and twisted idioms. Works Cited: Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare – Affiliate Link Catullus – Roman Poet Let Us Live and Love (5) – Catullus The Scarlet Letter – Nathaniel Hawthorne – Aff Link Easy A (2010) Doctor Zhivago – Boris Pasternak – Aff Link Deconstructionism Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

Step into our office and leave it with us. We protect the family! Join us as we walk through Father Figure from The Life of a Showgirl. Uncle Jerry gives his theories on the inspiration for the song, including many different movies, and Angela works out where she thinks the narrator changes mid-track. Pour yourself some brown liquor and you won’t be sleeping with the fishes. Works Cited: A Star is Born – All Versions Ranked All About Eve (1950) Goodfellas (1990) The Godfather (1972) The Freshman (1990) Ragged Dick: The 1868 Classic Rags to Riches Tale – Horatio Alger – Affiliate Link Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

We have officially entered our Showgirl era, and we’re kicking it off with The Fate of Ophelia. Uncle Jerry teaches us all about Ophelia’s role in Hamlet, one of the Ophelia paintings Taylor may have drawn inspiration from, and a couple of feminist critics’ takes on Ophelia.  We then get into the song, Angela weaves in a few nuggets of Tay-lore, and they round it out by discussing the feminist issues with the track,  watching the music video and listening to the voice memo of the writing of the song.  Works Cited: Hamlet – William Shakespeare – Affiliate Link What are Foil Characters? Representing Ophelia: Women, Madness, and the Responsibilities of Feminist Criticism  – Elaine Showalter Hearing Ophelia: Gender and Tragic Discourse in "Hamlet" – Sandra K. Fischer Desolation Row – Bob Dylan The Story of Ophelia – The Tate Pre-Raphaelite Women – Jan Marsh Dante Gabriel Rossetti – Ash Russell The Essential Pre-Raphaelites – Lucinda Hawksley – Aff Link The Language of Flowers – Margaret Pickston – Aff Link The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady – Edith Holden – Aff Link The King’s Two Bodies – Ernst Kantorowicz – Aff Link Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

We are wiping the incense dust off the shelf and picking ourselves up off the floor with Maroon this week. This Midnights track from 2022 is full of imagery, senses, colors, and so much more. Uncle Jerry also surprises us all with an interpretation from left field, which allows Angela the space to explain a specific sect of swifties. Enjoy! Works Cited: Richard Wright – Black American novelist Parallelism in Literature Robert Frost – The Road Not Taken Robert Frost – Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening Lawrence Ferlinghetti – American Beat poet Gregory Corso – American Beat poet Jack Kerouac – American Beat poet On The Road – Jack Kerouac Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

We’re coming down from our Showgirl high, and taking it back to 1989 this week. Uncle Jerry takes us through Clean, and breaks down the metaphors and themes found in the poem, including addiction, healing, personal growth, and personal agency. He also asks Angela who this song was inspired by, and admits that he’s now wondering about that in all of these songs. :)  There are links below to (most of!) the recommended literature from the episode. Some links are affiliate links, which means if you click and purchase, we will make a small commission at no cost to you. Works Cited: Metaphors We Live By –  George Lakoff and Mark Johnson The Great War and Modern Memory – Paul Fussell Not Waving but Drowning – Stevie Smith Afterwards – Sara Teasdale After Love – Sara Teasdale Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

The Swiftie and The Scholar took a field trip to the movie theater this weekend to hang out with Taylor and the Swifties! This was Uncle Jerry's first in-person swiftie experience, and he gives us his thoughts, along with his first impressions of a few of the new tracks. Angela gives her first impressions on the album and discusses which songs the podcast will cover first. Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

In this episode, Uncle Jerry and Angela get caught up on the latest Swiftie news, including the engagement and The Release Party of a Showgirl, and then they get into answering your questions from Instagram and TikTok. We cover poetry curriculum, how to get into scholarly pursuits, how Angela convinced Uncle Jerry to do the podcast, and how we select which songs we cover. There are links below to (most of!) the recommended literature from the episode. Some links are affiliate links, which means if you click and purchase, we will make a small commission at no cost to you. Works Cited: i carry your heart with me – e.e. cummings Epithalamion – Edmund Spenser The Hornblower Series – C.S. Forester Mr. Midshipman Hornblower (Book 1) – C.S. Forester African Queen – C.S. Forester The Good Shepherd – C.S. Forester 2001: A Space Odyssey – Arthur C. Clarke Stranger in a Strange Land Paperback – Robert A. Heinlein The Little Prince – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry The Oxford Book of Modern Verse – W.B. Yeats The Oxford Book of English Verse – Christopher Ricks The Norton Anthology of American Literature – Robert S. Levine E. E. Cummings: Complete Poems, 1904–1962 The Collected Poems of Wallace Stevens: The Corrected Edition Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman Metaphors We Live By – George Lakoff and Mark Johnson Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair – Pablo Neruda The Poet and His Book: The Collected Poems of Edna St. Vincent Millay The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson The Complete Poems: Anne Sexton The Penguin Anthology of Twentieth-Century American Poetry Paperback – Rita Dove American Poetry: The Twentieth Century, Volume 1: Henry Adams to Dorothy Parker – Robert Hass The Oxford Book of American Short Stories – Joyce Carol Oates A Cool Million Paperback – Nathanael West Lucky Jim Paperback – Kingsley Amis Cold Comfort Farm Paperback – Stella Gibbons  Bleak House – Charles Dickens The Old Curiosity Shop – Charles Dickens Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens  Our Mutual Friend – Charles Dickens ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠TikTok⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ Angela’s Instagram

Come walk through the door with us, cause the air is getting cooooold. Our 10th episode is here, and we were hoping you had 10 minutes to spare for this one.  We are digging deep into the All Too Well universe, and Uncle Jerry compares both the original version and the 10 minute version, what he thinks about the lyrics that were redacted for the edited version, and Taylor Swift’s masterful use of metaphor and other literary devices in every line of this song.  Works Cited: The Prelude – William Wordsworth – Affiliate Link Orality and Literacy – Walter J. Ong – Aff Link Birches – Robert Frost Mending Wall – Robert Frost Metaphors We Live By – George Lakoff and Mark Johnson – Aff Link In Just – Spring – e.e. Cummings Poetry – Nikki Giovanni Let me not to the marriage of true minds (Sonnet 116) – William Shakespeare A Rose for Emily – William Faulkner Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

Dom Perignon, did you bring it?  Today we’re toasting to Champagne Problems from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, evermore. Uncle Jerry discusses the different meter used throughout the lyrics, and also wonders if there’s a deeper meaning with society’s expectations and the narrator’s autonomy throughout the story. Angela brings up the Swiftie discussion about which word they’ll never say again, and they also tell the story of Uncle Jerry officiating Angela’s wedding. Works Cited: Night Train – Jimmy Forrest Take the A Train – Duke Ellington In Medias Res Heart of Glass – Blondie Iambic Pentameter Trochee Dactyl Anapest Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction – Marina Lambrou – Affiliate Link Sociological Criticism Follow Us: ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

Today we’re putting the money in the bag and stealing the keys, and discussing Taylor Swift’s Getaway Car from 2017. This cult Swiftie fave is our first track from Reputation, and Angela chose it because she knew Uncle Jerry would love the Dickens reference in the first line. Watch as the duo dissects each line, and Uncle Jerry picks up on the self-reflection Taylor wrote into the song. Works Cited: A Tale of Two Cities – Charles Dickens – Affiliate Link Shades of Gray – Carolyn Reeder – Aff Link Nicholas Nickleby – Charles Dickens – Aff Link Lexical Ambiguity Getaway Car Shirt – Girl Tribe Co. Writing BTS with Jack Follow Us: ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠TikTok⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ Angela’s Instagram

Let's talk through So Long, London! In this episode of The Swiftie and The Scholar, Uncle Jerry and Angela dissect the poetic lyrics of the fifth track from Taylor Swift's 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department. They find tons of literary devices and references, and Uncle Jerry even makes another correct prediction on the song's intro. Stay until the end to hear Uncle Jerry's grade for the song as a whole. Works Cited: Life of Johnson – James Boswell – Affiliate Link Perrine’s Sound and Sense: An Introduction to Poetry – Aff Link The Bells — Edgar Allan Poe Ignis fatuus Will-o’-the-wisp – Irish Folklore Odd Man Out – 1947 film The Bluest Eye – Toni Morrison – Aff Link Lyric Video Eras Tour Performance Follow Us: ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠TikTok⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ Angela’s Instagram

In this episode of The Swiftie and The Scholar, Angela and Uncle Jerry are taking it waaayyy back to 2006 with Taylor Swift’s first ever track 5, Cold As You. It might seem like a weird choice, but Angela wanted to present Uncle Jerry with some of Taylor’s earliest work so he could gain context around her growth as an artist over her entire career.  Uncle Jerry finds a few redeeming qualities in the song, and together they explore other break-up poetry from the greats.  Works Cited: Percy Bysshe Shelley Modern Love: I – George Meredith Sonnet It’s Not You, It’s Me – Jerry Williams – Affiliate Link The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals Rosemary VanArsdel Prize Her Kind – Ann Sexton Heavy – Mary Oliver A Broken Appointment – Thomas Hardy  The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson – Aff Link Heart! We will forget him! – Emily Dickinson I held a Jewel in my fingers – Emily Dickinson Eras Tour Surprise Song — Houston Follow Us: ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠TikTok⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Angela's Instagram⁠

In this episode of The Swiftie and The Scholar, Uncle Jerry and Angela analyze Death By A Thousand Cuts from Taylor Swift's 2019 album, Lover. Uncle Jerry finds literary devices aplenty in the lyrics, and discusses how she uses those devices to deftly handle the storytelling in the poem via indirect characterization. They also discuss the roundabout inspiration of this song and the Swiftie tradition of friendship bracelets. Works Cited: A Midsummer Night’s Dream – Shakespeare – Affiliate Link Lingchi Death By A Thousand Cuts – Timothy Brook, Jérôme Bourgon, Gregory Blue – Aff Link Mandarin Squares Great Expectations — Charles Dickens – Aff Link Kyn You Believe It — IDK Traffic Light Anaphora  Indirect Characterization Follow Us: ⁠YouTube⁠ ⁠TikTok⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠ ⁠Angela's Instagram⁠

In this bonus episode, Uncle Jerry and Angela discuss the excitement of the last week, including the cryptic Taylor Nation and New Heights posts, the countdowns, the new album announcement, and the two hour podcast episode heard 'round the world. Uncle Jerry teaches us a little bit about Ophelia and Hamlet to give some context around the album's opening track title, The Fate of Ophelia, and they discuss how Uncle Jerry got just a lilllll excited about the news.

In this episode of The Swiftie and The Scholar, Angela asks Uncle Jerry about his favorite music before they dive into cowboy like me from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album evermore. Uncle Jerry teaches us about the dramatic monologue and how Taylor uses this device in the song. They also talk about the use of cliches, indeterminate endings, and they discuss whether they think the couple in the song ends up together or not.  Works Cited: Blondie  Stardust — Hoagy Carmichael  Georgia on my Mind — Hoagy Carmichael Cantigas de Santa Maria Cantiga  Medieval Babes Pomplamoose Pokey LaFarge Gilbert and Sullivan La Boheme Tosca  Yeoman of the Guard Pirates of Penzance  HMS Pinafore In Medias Res The Odyssey – Homer Dramatic Monologue My Last Duchess – Robert Browning Porphyria's Lover – Robert Browning The Most Dangerous Game – Richard Connell

In this episode of The Swiftie and The Scholar, Uncle Jerry and Angela dissect Would’ve Could’ve Should’ve from Taylor Swift’s 2022 album Midnights. They briefly discuss their own church connections, explore the various religious imagery and references used throughout the song, and come to understand that they relate to the song in similar but different ways.  Uncle Jerry grades the song and brings in some poetry by Elizabeth Barrett Browning to round out his thoughts on the sadness of the track. Works Cited: Rhetorical Theory and Practice Immortal Technique – Dance with the Devil Love Story (1970 film) Sonnets from the Portuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning – Affiliate Link Les Miserables – Victor Hugo, Christine Donogher – Aff Link The Legend of Rose Latulipe

Uncle Jerry and Angela tackle Taylor Swift’s ‘Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?’ in the second episode of The Swiftie and The Scholar. Uncle Jerry talks about his journey from hate to appreciation of this track, he introduces the concept of Monstrous Femininity, and they talk about the cultural image of the witch throughout history.  Angela gives a (not so) brief look into her role as a Swiftie, and they watch and discuss both the lyric video and the Eras Tour performance of this TTPD track. Works Cited: Allen Ginsberg – Howl Thomas Chatterton Chatterton – Painting by Henry Wallis Dylan Thomas – Do Not Go Gentle into That Good Night Bohemian Coffee Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Snoweylily – Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee – Affiliate Link The Monstrous-Feminine – Barbara Creed – Affiliate Link Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me? – Official Lyric Video WAOLOM Performance – Eras Tour – 5/9/2024 Sounds Like a Cult – The Cult of Taylor Swift

In the debut episode of The Swiftie and The Scholar, Angela McDow, the Swiftie, and her uncle Dr. Jerry Coats, the Scholar, dig into My Tears Ricochet, the fifth track from Taylor Swift's Folklore album. They discuss the different folklore elements that Taylor uses in the song, the prevailing fan theory on the song's inspiration, and Uncle Jerry watches his first Eras Tour performance. Works Cited: The White Lady in Folklore Morphology of the Folktale – V. Propp – Affiliate Link Motif-Index of Folk-Literature; Volume 6.1 Index (A-K) – Stith Thompson – Aff Link Motif-Index of Folk-Literature; Volume 6.1 Index (L-Z) - Stith Thompson – Aff Link From the Beast to The Blonde – Marina Wariner The Uses of Enchantment – Bruno Bettelheim – Aff Link Yvonne Jocks - Goodreads Follow Us: Podcast Instagram Angela's Instagram Podcast TikTok