The Swiftie and The Scholar

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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