Episodes

Episode 06: Dear Reader – Midnights (2022)

Dear Reader

Angela & Uncle Jerry's pilot/trial episode analyzing Dear Reader, the closing track of Taylor Swift's Midnights album, examining its literary devices, intrusive narrator technique, and themes of celebrity and unreliable self-presentation.

my tears ricochet – folklore (2020)

my tears ricochet

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyse 'my tears ricochet' from Taylor Swift's folklore (2020), examining its lyrical imagery, folkloric resonances, and the real-world context of Taylor's masters dispute with Scott Borchetta and Scooter Braun.

Who's Afraid of Little Old Me? – The Tortured Poets Department (2024)

Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze Taylor Swift's 'Who's Afraid of Little Old Me?' from The Tortured Poets Department, exploring its animal and circus imagery, witch symbolism, and the concept of monstrous femininity.

Episode 03: Would've Could've Should've - Midnights (2022)

Would've, Could've, Should've

Angela & Uncle Jerry dissect Would've, Could've, Should've from Taylor Swift's 2022 album Midnights, exploring its dense religious imagery, rhetorical structure, and the emotional weight of a young woman looking back on an exploitative relationship.

cowboy like me – evermore (2020)

cowboy like me

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze "cowboy like me" from Taylor Swift's 2020 album evermore, focusing on its use of the dramatic monologue form, the function of clichés, and the indeterminate ending.

Death by a Thousand Cuts – Lover (2019)

Death by a Thousand Cuts

A deep dive into Taylor Swift's 'Death by a Thousand Cuts' from the Lover album, examining its extensive use of metaphor, simile, and other literary devices to construct an indirect characterization of a persona processing the aftermath of a devastating breakup.

Cold as You – Taylor Swift (2006)

Cold as You

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze Taylor Swift's first-ever track 5, 'Cold as You' from her 2006 self-titled debut album, examining her earliest songwriting through the lens of diction, rhyme scheme, and breakup poetry traditions.

So Long, London – The Tortured Poets Department (2024)

So Long, London

A deep literary and poetic analysis of Taylor Swift's 'So Long, London' from The Tortured Poets Department, examining its dense use of literary devices, folklore allusions, film references, and autobiographical elements.

Getaway Car – Reputation (2017)

Getaway Car

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyse Taylor Swift's 'Getaway Car' from Reputation (2017), focusing on its Dickens allusion, self-reflective narrative, and the shifting pronoun structure that tracks who controls the car — and the story.

champagne problems – evermore (2020)

champagne problems

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze "champagne problems" from Taylor Swift's 2020 album evermore, examining its non-chronological narrative structure, rhythmic meter, and the role of societal pressure in the song's story of a rejected marriage proposal.

All Too Well – Red (2012)

All Too Well

Angela & Uncle Jerry conduct a deep comparative analysis of both the original five-minute version and the ten-minute version of All Too Well, examining the redactions Taylor Swift made for the shorter version and the extraordinary density of metaphor and literary device throughout the longer version.

Clean – 1989 (2014)

Clean

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze Clean from 1989 (2014), breaking down the metaphors and themes of addiction, healing, personal growth, and personal agency found in the poem.

Maroon – Midnights (2022)

Maroon

A deep dive into Maroon from Midnights (2022), examining its rich sensory imagery, color symbolism, parallelism, and themes of abandonment and romantic loss.

The Reinterpretation of The Fate of Ophelia

The Fate of Ophelia

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze The Fate of Ophelia from The Life of a Showgirl, examining its deep roots in Shakespeare's Hamlet, the Pre-Raphaelite painting tradition, and Taylor Swift's feminist reinterpretation of Ophelia's tragic fate.

The Cinematic Imagery of Father Figure | The Swiftie and The Scholar

Father Figure

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze "Father Figure" from The Life of a Showgirl, exploring its cinematic influences (The Godfather, All About Eve, A Star is Born), its dramatic monologue structure, and the question of where the narrator shifts mid-song.

The Traditional Tropes of Love Story

Love Story

Angela & Uncle Jerry examine Love Story from Fearless (2008), Taylor Swift's first single from her second album, exploring its traditional romantic tropes and comparing it to her more mature later work.

Peter – The Tortured Poets Department (2024)

Peter

A deep literary analysis of Taylor Swift's 'Peter' from The Tortured Poets Department anthology, examining its sustained allusion to J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, its function as an 'I'm sorry poem,' and its meditation on lost innocence, maturation, and the impossibility of holding on to childhood fantasy.

The Gothic Tradition of The Black Dog

The Black Dog

An in-depth analysis of Taylor Swift's 'The Black Dog' from The Tortured Poets Department, exploring the black dog as a folklore archetype, the Gothic literary tradition the song belongs to, and Roland Barthes' 'Death of the Author' as a framework for interpretation.

The Fairytale Diction of Enchanted | The Swiftie and The Scholar

Enchanted

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze Taylor Swift's "Enchanted" from Speak Now (2010), focusing on its fairy tale diction, advancing poetic technique, and the love-at-first-sight narrative tradition.

The Romanticism of The Lakes

the lakes

Angela & Uncle Jerry examine Taylor Swift's 'the lakes' from folklore, exploring its deep roots in Romanticism and the Lake Poets, and how Taylor weaves those literary traditions into her own artistic manifesto.

The 80s Club Vibes of New Romantics

New Romantics

Angela & Uncle Jerry examine how Taylor Swift's 'New Romantics' draws on the sociocultural movement of New Romanticism from the late 1970s and 1980s, connecting the song's themes of self-expression, embracing flaws, and club culture to the Blitz Kids, androgyny, and the anti-hero.

The Double Entendre of LOML

loml

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze the pervasive double meanings and juxtaposed imagery in Taylor Swift's 'loml' from The Tortured Poets Department, arguing that the poem's central motif is structural ambiguity — from the title's dual reading (love/loss of my life) through every major image in the song.

The Intertextuality of 'Tis the Damn Season

tis the damn season

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyse 'tis the damn season from evermore, focusing on its intertextuality with Robert Frost's 'The Road Not Taken' and Thomas Wolfe's 'You Can't Go Home Again,' the return-home trope, and the question of whether the song is autobiography, fiction, or autofiction.

The Resolutions of Love in New Year's Day

New Year's Day

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze New Year's Day, the closing track of Reputation, exploring its extended metaphor of New Year's Eve-to-New Year's Day as a conceit for the passage of life and the promissory nature of enduring love.

The Self-Deprecation of Anti-Hero | The Swiftie and The Scholar

Anti-Hero

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze Anti-Hero from Midnights, one of Taylor Swift's five submissions to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, focusing on the song's self-deprecation, dark humor, and psychological underpinnings.

The Satire of Blank Space | The Swiftie and The Scholar

Blank Space

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze Blank Space from 1989, the fourth of five songs Taylor Swift submitted for consideration for induction into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, focusing on its satirical and feminist dimensions.

The Cultural Critique of The Last Great American Dynasty

the last great american dynasty

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze Taylor Swift's 'the last great american dynasty' from folklore, the final song they cover from Taylor's five submissions to the Songwriters Hall of Fame, examining its biographical narrative of Rebekah Harkness and Taylor's mirroring of her own life through that story.

The Tangled Ambiguity of Ivy | The Swiftie and The Scholar

ivy

A deep analysis of Taylor Swift's poem 'ivy' from evermore, exploring its layered ambiguity, multiple interpretive frameworks, and masterful poetic technique.

The Exploration of Truth in Cassandra | The Swiftie and The Scholar

Cassandra

An in-depth analysis of Cassandra from The Tortured Poets Department, exploring the Greek mythological figure of Cassandra as the song's central metaphor and examining how Taylor Swift uses dense metaphorical language, biblical allusions, and classical references to interrogate the nature of truth, feminine marginalization, and the experience of being disbelieved.

The Exploration of Depression in Evermore | The Swiftie and The Scholar

evermore

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze the title track 'evermore' from the evermore album (2020), exploring its depiction of depression, its echoes of Edgar Allan Poe's 'The Raven,' and Uncle Jerry's theory that the bridge represents an internal dialogue with the speaker's Jungian animus.

The Depth Without Darkness in Opalite | The Swiftie and The Scholar

Opalite

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze Opalite from The Life of a Showgirl, a lighthearted glitter gel pen song celebrating Taylor Swift's relationship with Travis Kelce, examining its verse form, metaphorical use of gemstones, and the significance of opalite as a manufactured stone representing self-made joy.

The Psychological Burden of The Albatross | The Swiftie and The Scholar

The Albatross

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze The Albatross from The Tortured Poets Department, exploring its dense literary allusions to The Rime of the Ancient Mariner and other works, and the song's journey from repudiation to redemption in the context of a public romance.

The Feminist Critique of Mad Woman | The Swiftie and The Scholar

mad woman

Angela & Uncle Jerry examine mad woman from folklore (2020), exploring its feminist critique of how women are characterized as hysterical, mad, or witchy, and how Taylor Swift reclaims those labels through animal imagery, literary allusion, and sustained repetition.

August – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 1 | The Swiftie and The Scholar

august

Angela & Uncle Jerry begin their multi-episode deep dive into the folklore love triangle, starting with august. Uncle Jerry introduces the Rashomon Effect, dis-narration, split narratives, and dramatic irony as frameworks for understanding the three interconnected songs.

Betty – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 2 | The Swiftie and The Scholar

betty

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze "betty" as part two of the folklore love triangle trilogy, examining James's unreliable narration, adolescent diction, and the split narrative structure that connects betty, august, and cardigan.

Cardigan – The Folklore Love Triangle Part 3 | The Swiftie and The Scholar

cardigan

Angela & Uncle Jerry conclude their three-part exploration of the folklore love triangle by analyzing cardigan, examining its rich literary devices, symbolic imagery, and mature narrative perspective, then wrapping up the collective themes across all three songs (august, betty, and cardigan).

Fate vs. Free Will in The Prophecy

The Prophecy

A deep dive into The Prophecy from Taylor Swift's The Tortured Poets Department, examining its tarot card imagery, biblical allusions, fairy tale references, and the tension between fate and free will in the speaker's romantic life.

The Sentimentalism of Marjorie | The Swiftie and The Scholar

marjorie

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze marjorie from evermore, examining the song's aphoristic structure, its bridge as a standalone poem, and situating it within the literary tradition of sentimentalism.

The Christian Tendrils of But Daddy I Love Him

But Daddy I Love Him

A deep analysis of But Daddy I Love Him from The Tortured Poets Department, exploring its common romantic tropes, conservative small-town religious imagery, and the biographical reading that Taylor Swift is addressing her fans and critics as 'daddy.'

The Inquisitive Human Nature in How Did It End? | The Swiftie and The Scholar

How Did It End?

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyze How Did It End? from The Tortured Poets Department, examining its extended postmortem conceit, carnival barker imagery, superior rhyme work, and the theme of human nature's inquisitiveness about others' private lives.

The Nature of Fame in Mirrorball | The Swiftie and The Scholar

mirrorball

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyse mirrorball from folklore, exploring the folklore of mirrors, the extended metaphor of the mirrorball as celebrity, and the song's meditation on the nature of fame during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Light of Stardom in Clara Bow

Clara Bow

Angela & Uncle Jerry analyse Clara Bow from The Tortured Poets Department, examining the cyclical nature of fame for women, the violence of beauty standards, and Taylor Swift's self-aware placement of herself in a lineage of female icons from Clara Bow through Stevie Nicks to the present.

Answering Your Questions, Vol. 1 | The Swiftie and The Scholar

A listener Q&A: reading recommendations, poets who remind Uncle Jerry of Taylor, study advice, and a long-skipped So Long, London line finally explained.

Dr. Uncle Jerry University: Poetry 101 | The Swiftie and The Scholar

A bonus teaching episode on poetry fundamentals: confessional poetry, deliberate ambiguity, the major schools of literary theory, and whether poetry still matters, all framed around how Uncle Jerry reads Taylor.