The Swiftie and The Scholar

Buckle up, y’all. We’ve got a beefy one for you today! We’re tackling Babylon from Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl: The Encore. I think we all knew this one would give Uncle Jerry plenty to think about and chew on and teach from, and he did not disappoint. Maybe grab your breakfast or dinner and a nice beverage and get comfy, because this is our longest episode yet. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: The Autobiography of Red – Anne Carson *Amazon *Bookshop.org Angela’s Reaction Video – The Encore Professing Literature: An Institutional History – Gerald Graff *Amazon *Bookshop.org Ancient Babylon What Does "Mene, Mene, Tekel, Parsin" Mean? Ozymandias – Percy Bysshe Shelley Babylon (2022) Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory Wild Things (1998) Where The Wild Things Are – Maurice Sendak *Amazon *Bookshop.org Wild Thing – The Troggs The Libertine (2004) Onomatopoeia Metonymy Logos, Pathos, Ethos Dramatic Irony Miniver Cheevy – Edwin Arlington Robinson The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Reddit ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

In this episode, we are taking it back to the very beginning with Tim McGraw from Taylor Swift’s debut album. Uncle Jerry finds plenty to discuss and is charmed by hearing both young Taylor’s early poetics and her country twang. Works Cited: Tug McGraw In medias res Free indirect discourse Alliteration Metonymy Signposting Rasselas – Samuel Johnson Palimpsest Enjambment Frame story or frame structure Leitmotif The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Reddit ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

Today I have something a bit different for you! I sat down with Sarah Anderson, author of Fallow, to discuss getting published, her love of short stories, how she wrote the main character of the book, and so much more. All of the books we discussed are linked below. Fallow – Sarah Anderson: *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm Take Me to Kirkland – Sarah Anderson: https://joylandpublishing.com/fiction/take-me-to-kirkland/ The Best American Short Stories 2025 – Celeste Ng, Nicole A. Lamy: *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm Marlena – Julie Buntin: *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm Famous Men – Julie Buntin: *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm Health Trackers Are Everywhere. Do Babies Need Them Too? – The Daily: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5QNrdUSF28Vsxla5a0exzK?si=TPgMlCapQwy4AJuqP1ptoQ Temporary – Hilary Leichter: *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm The Quick and the Dead – Joy Williams: *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm The Visiting Privilege – Joy Williams: *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm All Fours – Miranda July *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm The First Bad Man – Miranda July *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm Margo’s Got Money Troubles – Rufi Thorpe *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm East of Eden – John Steinbeck *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm The Maltese Version – Katy Simpson Smith *Amazon *Bookshop.org *Libro.fm Follow me around the internet: YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@angelawyattmcdow Instagram⁠⁠ https://www.instagram.com/angelawyattmcdow TikTok https://www.tiktok.com/@angelawyattmcdow The Swiftie and The Scholar YouTube Channel https://www.youtube.com/@UCyLE2ovIvwERY4lB0nNev5A The Swiftie and The Scholar Patreon https://www.patreon.com/cw/TheSwiftieandTheScholar The Swiftie and The Scholar ⁠⁠Instagram https://www.instagram.com/swiftieandscholarpod/

We did it! One album down, lots to go. Uncle Jerry takes us through alllllll the unifying themes, devices, questions, and more (13 to be exact) of the folklore album as a whole. Thanks for coming on this journey with us! *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: Sonnets from the Portuguese 20: Beloved, my Beloved, when I think – Elizabeth Barrett Browning *Aurora Leigh: A Norton Critical Edition – Elizabeth Barrett Browning *Morphology of the Folktale – V. Propp *The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales – Bruno Bettelheim *Fairy Tales and the Art of Subversion – Jack Zipes *Fairy Tale as Myth/Myth as Fairy Tale – Jack Zipes *The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales – Jack Zipes *The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: A Norton Critical Edition – Jack Zipes *Literary Theory: An Introduction – Terry Eagleton *Witches, Ogres, and the Devil's Daughter: Encounters with Evil in Fairy Tales – Mario Jacoby, Verena Kast, Ingrid Riedel *Retelling / Rereading: The Fate of Storytelling in Modern Times – Karl Kroeber *Linguistic Criticism – Roger Fowler *From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers – Marina Warner *No Go, the Bogeyman: Scaring, Lulling, and Making Mock – Marina Warner [anyone lived in a pretty how town] – e.e. cummings Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird – Wallace Stevens Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs Lore & Lyrics Ulysses – James Joyce A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce *Slaughter-House Five – Kurt Vonnegut *The Catcher in the Rye – J. D. Salinger *Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain Hilary Duff is trying to listen to the healthy part of her brain – Los Angeles Times The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Reddit ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

Well, guys, we’ve really stressed Uncle Jerry out with this one. He went so deep on the folklore album as a whole that this episode focuses mostly on the prologue and how it sets up this new style of storytelling, different from all her previous albums. Hope you enjoy, and we’ll see you back here next week for Part 2! *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: * Starship Troopers – Robert A. Heinlein Folklore (Taylor Swift album) * Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems – William Shakespeare * Sonnets from the Portuguese – Elizabeth Barrett Browning * Astrophil and Stella – Sir Philip Sidney Semiotics The Odyssey – Homer Beowulf Dryads Hulder Folklore prologue Daddy – Sylvia Plath Anecdote of the Jar – Wallace Stevens The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Reddit ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

We’ve made it to the end of the folklore road! Join Uncle Jerry and Angela as they discuss this is me trying, where the duo finds some Typical Taylor, ambiguity, paradox, multiple meanings, and so much more. Come back for the next two weeks as we wrap-up discussion of the album as a whole. Works Cited: Couplets Heroic couplets Anaphora Starship Troopers (1997) Enjambment Ellipsis In medias res The Odyssey – Homer Caesura Why I Write – Joan Didion Simile The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

Today we’re covering our penultimate folklore poem with Illicit Affairs. Uncle Jerry finds this song fits perfectly within the category of folklore, and shows us just how Taylor Swift’s use of language showcases the lack of love in this song. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: Interlocutor Imperative verb Dramatic irony The Book of Jonah Synecdoche The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost Aphorism Assonance Alliteration *The Pleasure of the Text – Roland Barthes Anaphora Synesthesia Sonnet 138 – William Shakespeare The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

Did we finally find Uncle Jerry’s least favorite folklore poem? And maybe Angela’s too? In this episode, we dissect Peace from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, and Uncle Jerry finds many paradoxes and double meanings, while struggling to find a window to crawl through into the narrative. Works Cited: Paradox Apostrophe Synecdoche I Would Die 4 U – Prince You’ve Got a Friend in Me – Randy Newman Easy Silence – The Chicks Two Sleepy People – Fats Waller Stuck in the Middle With You – Stealers Wheel You Are My Sunshine – Jimmie Davis Standing In The Rain – John Paul Young Standing In The Rain – Al Green Standing In The Rain – Electric Light Orchestra The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

Buckle up, folks. This is a long one! Invisible String is up next in our folklore canon, and Uncle Jerry showed up PREPARED. He and Angela chat through folktales about the red thread, handfasting ceremonies, and more before diving into the poem. They then get into a long and philosophical conversation about fate and predestination and Forrest Gump. JOIN US ON REDDIT! *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: All in green went my love riding – e.e. Cummings Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman Red thread of fate Handfasting Pope Innocent III and Handfasting 2 Kings 14:21 – 16 as the age of ascension Epizeuxis *The Sun Also Rises – Ernest Hemingway Enjambment Metanarrative Synecdoche Goddesses of Fate Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad Caesura Forrest Gump – Winston Groom Forrest Gump (1994) Design – Robert Frost Hap – Thomas Hardy Proverbs 16:33 The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ Reddit ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

We have the opening track of folklore for you today! Uncle Jerry and Angela discuss the relatable way Taylor Swift writes about the ruminations about the different lives we never got to live during this discussion of The 1. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: The Windhover – Gerard Manley Hopkins Ellipsis Caesura Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory Contrafactuality Sight rhyme or eye rhyme * The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald Trochaic Hexameter The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

In this episode, we are covering Hoax, the closing track from 2020’s folklore. Uncle Jerry starts out a bit iffy on his feelings about the poem, but talking through it with Angela helps him find extra meaning. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: Anaphora Ellipsis Oxymoron Polysemy Parallelism Paradox Fatalism Faithless Love – Linda Ronstadt i sing of Olaf glad and big – e.e. cummings To a Mouse – Robert Burns *Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck To a Louse – Robert Burns Jonah 3 – Jonah Goes to Nineveh Synecdoche Metanarrative The Lord’s Prayer The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

Continuing along our folklore journey, this episode covers exile, the collaboration between Taylor Swift and Bon Iver. Uncle Jerry teaches us about different types of exile and how they appear across literature and folk tales. We then dig into the poem and Uncle Jerry admits to Angela that he almost cheated and listened to the song because he was so ready to hear how they spoke over each other. Also, ICYMI, we will be finishing the entire folklore album. Stay tuned over the next few weeks as we tackle the remaining tracks and then do a comprehensive overview. Song discussion starts at 19:12 *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: Just Give Me a Reason – Pink ft. Nate Ruess The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri Gilgamesh, Nature, and Civilization Paradise Lost – John Milton The Odyssey – Homer Exile of Ovid Poems From Exile: Ex Ponto, Book I – Ovid *Frankenstein – Mary Shelley *Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky *Ulysses – James Joyce *Dubliners – James Joyce *A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce Polyphony in Contemporary Literature Dramatic irony Assonance Alliteration Iambic tetrameter Iambic trimeter Ballad meter or common measure Synecdoche Phaedrus Epistrophe The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We are tackling one of the most underrated tracks from Taylor Swift’s folklore album, epiphany. The poem compares past war tragedies to 2020’s pandemic, and Uncle Jerry uses the poem to teach us about Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: Wilfred Owen Siegfried Sassoon The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner – Randall Jarrell The Angels at Hamburg – Randall Jarrell Vignette poems Rhapsody on a Windy Night – T. S. Eliot Trochees Iambs The Song of Hiawatha – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory *Death in the Afternoon – Ernest Hemingway Caesura Parallelism Synecdoche *The Things They Carried: The Classic Work of American Literature on War, Memory, and Storytelling –Tim O'Brien *Man's Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent – John Milton The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram Angela’s YouTube Channel

We are back in our Tortured Poets Era with Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus. This song was much-requested and was voted on by our Patreon subscribers. Angela and Uncle Jerry talk through the poem and Uncle Jerry concedes that sometimes we try to find too much meaning in certain images. Works Cited: Sadie and Maud – Gwendolyn Brooks maggie and milly and molly and may – e.e. cummings [in Just-] – e.e. cummings Brylcreem commercial Synecdoche Sonnet 12 – William Shakespeare Sonnet 60 – William Shakespeare Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare My Boyfriend’s Back – The Angels Cold Cold Heart – Hank Williams Ellipse in Linguistics To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell Tricolon The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We’re back in our Speak Now era with Dear John. Angela explains the lore behind this quintessential track 5 from Taylor Swift, and Uncle Jerry talks himself into being a fan of this poem. *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: Dear John Letter Agnes von Kurowsky *A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway A Dear John Letter – Jean Shepard & Ferlin Husky Dear John Letter – Whitney Houston Epistolary frame Poetic Inversion Dramatic Irony Metapoetry Metonymy The Scholar-Gipsy – Matthew Arnold The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

This week is the one year podcast anniversary, and Angela saved this song especially for this episode. But before we tackle seven from folklore, Angela and Uncle Jerry reflect on the past year and Angela surprises him with a little quiz to see just how much he’s learned about Taylor Swift and swiftie culture. Thanks for being here with us! *Links with an asterisk are affiliate links, which allow us to make a small commission on your purchase at no cost to you. Thanks so much for your support! Works Cited: 7 as the number of completion Apostrophe Imperatives Pastoral Poetry Dramatic Irony Assonance To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell American Primitive – Mary Oliver * The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We’re taking it back to 1989 with the only Taylor Swift song Uncle Jerry knew before we started this project. Angela expected this to be a quick, simple episode, but Uncle Jerry found a lot of deeper meaning in the glitter gel pen poem. Works Cited: Catalog Poem Dr. J. Don Vann A Handbook to Literature – William Harmon & Hugh Holman – Aff Link Goblin Market – Christina Rossetti Why We Oppose Pockets for Women – Alice Duer Miller Anaphora Metonymy Onomatopoeia Epizeuxis Polyptoton Tautological The Waking – Theodore Roethke Apostrophe Shake It Off music video Stars – Richard Dyer – Aff Link The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

Today we return to Angela’s beloved Red era with State of Grace! Uncle Jerry surprises her with his excitement about the poem, and they go through all the ideas of love Taylor presents throughout the opening track. And there’s gravy all over the plate! Works Cited: In medias res Kinetic or kinesthetic imagery Metonymy Parallel structure A Midsummer Night's Dream – William Shakespeare – Aff Link Concrete Poetry A to Z Horoscope Maker and Interpreter – Llewellyn George – Aff Link Synecdoche Synecdoche vs. metonymy Litotes The Literate Mode of Cicero's Legal Rhetoric – Dr. Richard Leo Enos Ph.D. – Aff Link Manos: The Hands of Fate – (1966) Hesiod – Richard Lattimore – Aff Link Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun – William Shakespeare Tricolon The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

Angela finally introduces Uncle Jerry to a pivotal track 5 from Taylor Swift’s discography—You’re On Your Own, Kid. They discuss the real life events that could have inspired the song and Uncle Jerry talks about other pieces of pop culture that tell a similar story. Works Cited: Anaphora Colloquial diction Dramatic irony Free indirect discourse Verbal irony Auditory imagery Metonymy Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain – Aff link The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri – Aff link Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare The Great Escape (1963) Li'l Abner Parataxis Father and Son – Cat Stevens Keep a-Goin’ – Frank L. Stanton The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

In this episode, Uncle Jerry and Angela tackle The Great War from 2022’s Midnights. Uncle Jerry wrestles with the idea of using a horrific event as a metaphor, and he teaches all about the many floral symbols used throughout the poem. Works Cited: The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady – Edith Holden – Aff Link The Great War and Modern Memory – Paul Fussell – Aff Link The Strange Destiny of Rupert Brooke Hardcover – John Lehmann Siegfried Sassoon Memoirs of an Infantry Officer: The Memoirs of George Sherston – Siegfried Sassoon – Aff Link Goodbye to All That – Robert Graves – Aff Link All Quiet on the Western Front (1930) War Poems – Wilfred Owen – Aff Link Dulce et Decorum Est – Wilfred Owen Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology – Tim Kendall – Aff Link The Soldier – Rupert Brooke In Flanders Fields – John McCrae The History and Rhymes of the Lost Battalion – Buck Private McCollum – Aff Link Crimson & Clover – Tommy James and the Shondells The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram