The Swiftie and The Scholar

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

Man, it’s been a while! Today we’re covering the newly released I Knew It, I Knew You from Toy Story 5 and current #1 on the Billboard 100 chart. Uncle Jerry takes us through the poem, talking all about childhood and friendship and how both this song and the movie franchise showcase the magic of being a kid. We bring in a special guest–an expert–at the end to grade the song. Works Cited: Homonym Runnin’ Wild – Some Like It Hot Volta Emjambment Epiphora or Epistrophe Leaves of Grass – Walt Whitman Anagnorisis Epizeuxis Dramatic Irony Mnemonic I Knew It, I Knew You Visualizer The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We are taking it back to the 1920s (and then the 1970s) today with Clara Bow from The Tortured Poets Department. Uncle Jerry talks all about the early film industry, Stevie Nicks, the violence of beauty and fame for women, and so much more. Works Cited: Clara Bow The Jazz Singer (1927) Greta Garbo Douglas Fairbanks John Gilbert Michael Curtiz Casablanca (1942) The Lodger (1947) World’s Columbian Exposition (1893) The Birth of a Nation (1915) It (1927) It – Elinor Glyn – Aff Link Caesura Horatio Alger Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller A Cool Million – Nathanael West – Aff Link The Tragical History of Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe To an Athlete Dying Young – A. E. Housman Idle Fame – John Clare The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson – Aff Link Fame is a fickle food (1659) – Emily Dickinson Fame is a bee. (1788) – Emily Dickinson Mirrorball/Clara Bow Mash-up 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 folklore era with mirrorball today! Uncle Jerry had some extra time with this one and doesn’t even know where to start the discussion. We get into the uses of mirrors in folklore, how this was made during the pandemic, and discuss the many facets of celebrity. Make sure you come back next week for another song discussing the nature of fame. Works Cited: The Philosophy of Reflection: Mirrors as Symbols Across Cultures Catoptromancy Through the Looking Glass – Lewis Carroll – Aff Link Perseus and Medusa A Discovery of Witches (2018) 'Spirit mirror' used by 16th-century occultist John Dee came from the Aztec Empire Conceit Anaphora Inclusio Ouroboros Albertus Magnus and the Magic Mirror Loafing Him was Bread T-Shirt The House of Fame – Geoffrey Chaucer The Temple of Fame – Alexander Pope The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

FIXED AUDIO! Call all your friends and cousins, we’re finally covering How Did It End? from The Tortured Poets Department. Uncle Jerry finds tons of beautiful poetics and dark humor in this one, and Angela discusses its connections to both The Prophecy and But Daddy I Love Him. If you want to vote for a specific song for June, join us on Patreon to play along! Works Cited: General Reference Pronoun Autofiction as a Doorway Into Truth Conceit – Literary term Come One, Come All – All Time Low Slant Rhyme "Now give three cheers" – HMS Pinafore The Telephone Hour – Bye Bye Birdie The Raven – Edgar Allan Poe Annabel Lee – Edgar Allan Poe To -- -- --. Ulalume: A Ballad – Edgar Allan Poe Hyperion – John Keats Ode to a Nightingale – John Keats A Rose for Emily – William Faulkner The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

Buckle up for a long one! We are flooring it through the fences today with But Daddy I Love Him from Taylor Swift’s 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department. We discuss common movie tropes, conservative small towns, and the lyrics Angela wants to have tattooed from this song. Works Cited: Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell – Susanna Clarke – Aff Link East of Eden – John Steinbeck – Aff Link Rebel With a Cause (1955) The Notebook (2004) Inside Daisy Clover (1965) How The West Was Won (1962) Anaphora Epiphora (or epistrophe) the Cambridge ladies who live in furnished souls – e.e. cummings Footloose (1984) The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

In this episode, we are tackling marjorie , a track from Taylor Swift’s evermore album from 2020. Uncle Jerry teaches us about sentimentalism in literature, and Angela blows his mind by telling him the real life Marjorie’s backstory. Works Cited: Aphorism David Hume Immanuel Kant Sentimentalism Sentimental Novels in Early American Fiction The Man of Feeling – Henry Mackenzie – Aff Link Pamela: Or Virtue Rewarded – Samuel Richardson – Aff Link Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen – Aff Link A Treatise of Human Nature Paperback – David Hume – Aff Link The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We’re doing something a bit different today! Some conversations have popped up in various comment sections about why Uncle Jerry prefers specific types of poetry, and which lenses we use to dissect those poems, whether we’re talking about Charles Dickens, Emily Dickenson, or Taylor Swift. So Uncle Jerry put together a lecture explaining how and why he views certain poetic styles the way he does, and explains the different criticism styles and theories we use to understand a poem’s meaning and impact. Hope you enjoy! Please leave any questions in the comments that he can answer either here or in a later episode. Works Cited: Marxist Literary Criticism Post-Colonial Criticism Reader-response theory Key Theories of Wolfgang Iser Is There a Text in This Class? – Stanley Fish – Aff Link Psychological Criticism Feminist Theory New Criticism Felicia Dorothea Hemans On the Intentional Fallacy Hyperion – John Keats Affective Fallacy Queer Theory Deconstruction Semiotics Critical Race Theory New Historicism Stephen Greenblatt and New Historicism Sketches by Boz – Charles Dickens – Aff Link Sonnets Shakespeare's Sonnets & Poems – William Shakespeare – Aff Link Limerick Haiku Ballad Meter (or Common Measure) Villanelle Concrete Poetry Life Studies – Robert Lowell – Aff Link The Collected Poems – Sylvia Plath – Aff Link My Papa’s Waltz – Theodore Roethke The Real Slim Shady – Eminem Can Poetry Matter?: Essays on Poetry and American Culture Paperback – Dana Gioia – Aff Link A Bit Much – Lyndsay Rush – Aff Link Lyndsay Rush – Instagram Amanda Gorman The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram

We are getting witchy today as we dive deep into The Prophecy from Taylor Swift’s 2024 album, The Tortured Poets Department. Uncle Jerry teaches us about some specific references to tarot and the occult in literature, and how that shaped a few of his interests. Angela tells the story of a tarot reading that Taylor received from a friend, and how she thinks it inspired this song. Works Cited: The Collected Poems of W.B. Yeats – William Butler Yeats – Aff Link Rosicrucian Fellowship The Secrets of the Belline Oracle – Sylvie Steinbach – Aff Link Crowley Thoth Tarot Deck Visconti-Sforza Tarot Cards – The Morgan Library Visconti Sforza Tarot Cards Cards – Stuart R. Kaplan – Aff Link Miniature Rider-Waite® Tarot – Pamela C. Smith – Aff Link Rider Waite Gold Foil Tarot Deck – Aff Link The Original Rider Waite: The Pictorial Key To The Tarot: An Illustrated Guide – A.E. Waite – Aff Link Tarot Revelations – Joseph Campbell, Richard Roberts – Aff Link A to z Horoscope Maker and Delineator – Llewellyn George – Aff Link A Treatise on the Astrolabe – Geoffrey Chaucer – Aff Link Antithesis – Rhetorical Device Gimpel the Fool: And Other Stories – Isaac Bashevis Singer – Aff Link The Miller’s Tale – Geoffrey Chaucer Morphology of the Folktale – V. Propp – Aff Link Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index Taylor Swift’s Tarot Card Revelation Proves None of Travis Kelce Romance Was Accidental Inclusio The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix Follow Us: Patreon ⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠ ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ Threads ⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠ Uncle Jerry’s Instagram