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

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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.

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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