The Swiftie and The Scholar

1d ago

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

Dec 11

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

Dec 4

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

Nov 27

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

Nov 20

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

Nov 13

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

Nov 6

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

Oct 30

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