The Romanticism of 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.

Key Insights

Angela & Uncle Jerry identify the song as a deliberate neo-Romantic poem, with Taylor invoking the tenets of Romanticism — common language, common people, and the inward turning of the mind — as laid out in Wordsworth and Coleridge's Lyrical Ballads. Uncle Jerry argues that Taylor's use of modern, 'common' words like 'cell phones' and 'sleaze' is not a break from the literary register but an intentional application of the Romantic mandate for common language. The episode draws sustained parallels between the criticism Taylor has faced and the derogatory criticism the Lake Poets received, particularly Francis Jeffrey's labeling of them as 'whining and hypocritical poets.' Uncle Jerry highlights the poetic inversion in 'tell me what are my words worth' as both a Romantic-era technique and a deliberate Wordsworth pun. The bridge's image of 'a red rose grew up out of ice frozen ground' is read as both a Romantic ideal of nature's persistence and a metaphor for Taylor's art persevering despite hostile conditions.

Literary Analysis

The episode is anchored in Romanticism as a literary movement, with Uncle Jerry tracing the movement's origins through the Lyrical Ballads (Wordsworth and Coleridge) and its three tenets: common language, common people, and the inward turning of the mind. He contrasts Romanticism with Neoclassicism / Age of Reason, using Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility (Marianne vs. Eleanor) as an illustration of the cultural fight between the two movements. The Lake Poets, Wordsworth, Coleridge, Dorothy Wordsworth, Robert Southey, are discussed as both literary forebears and biographical parallels to Taylor's experience of public criticism. Uncle Jerry identifies the poem's rhyme scheme (ABB, then CDCD, etc.) and notes its pervasive, consistent rhyming as a hallmark of Romantic poetry. He discusses assonance (the repeated 'e' sounds in 'elegies eulogize me'), alliteration ('cynical,' 'cell'; 'cut,' 'clones'), poetic inversion ('what are my words worth'), hyperbole ('heart-stopping waves of hurt'), irony ('my elegies eulogize me'), and the deliberate ambiguity of 'tweeting' as both social media and birdsong. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 'my beloved' (Sonnets from the Portuguese, Sonnet 20) is cited as a source for Taylor's diction. Christopher Marlowe's 'The Passionate Shepherd to His Love' is invoked as a parallel for the 'come with me' impulse. W.B. Yeats' 'The Lake Isle of Innisfree' is cited as a thematic parallel for the desire for simple, nature-bound life. Uncle Jerry also connects Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Aurora Leigh to the line 'I want auroras and sad prose.' Reader response theory is briefly referenced regarding folklore's cultural moment during the 2020 pandemic.

Concepts Explored

Literary Quotes Referenced

Francis Jeffrey in the Edinburgh Review: 'The school of whining and hypocritical poets that haunt the lakes.' Francis Jeffrey: 'radical misguided departure from established literary norms.' Wordsworth: 'we lay waste our powers' / 'getting and spending we lay waste our powers' / 'Great God

I'd rather be a pagan suckled in a creed outworn.' Christopher Marlowe: 'Come with me and be my love and we will all the pleasures prove of Hills and Valleys

Dales and Vales and all that steamy mountains yields.' William Butler Yeats on the Lake Isle of Innisfree: wanting to build a home 'of wattlemaid and nine bean rows.' Wordsworth on daffodils: 'whenever he's in pensive mood

he thinks once again of the daffodils just tossing their heads.' Wordsworth: 'splendor in the grass.'

People & Figures Mentioned

Robert SoutheyThomas De QuinceyMary LambJohn RuskinHarriet MartineauHartley ColeridgeHenry David ThoreauW.H. AudenTurnerMatthew ArnoldMrs. OliphantVictoria