We are getting angry and witchy today with mad woman from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, folklore. Uncle Jerry teaches us where the word hysteria comes from, how women have been written about for centuries, and how sometimes, we make our own monsters.

Listen to the song with us on Patreon!

Works Cited:

The Madwoman in the Attic – Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar – Aff Link

In Medias Res: Definition and Examples To Start a Story in the Middle

Dramatic Monologue

Orion and Scorpius

The Mourning Bride – William Congreve

Summa Theologica – Thomas Aquinas

Handlyng Synne – Robert Manning of Brunne

Christian Caldwell, Woman Witchhunter

Cassandra x mad woman x I Did Something Bad

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We have a much-requested poem for you in this episode! Uncle Jerry and Angela tackle The Albatross from The Tortured Poets Department, but first, Uncle Jerry lets us all know how disappointed he is with us as a class lololol. Oops! Join us as we discuss relationships in the public eye, and the journey of repudiation and redemption the song takes us on.

Works Cited:

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

Aubrey & Maturin – Jack O’Brian

Book of Jonah

Can’t Help Falling in Love – Elvis Presley

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight

Ode to the West Wind – Percy Bysshe Shelley

Wild nights - Wild nights! – Emily Dickinson

Romeo and Juliet – William Shakespeare

Antigone – Sophocles

Antony and Cleopatra – William Shakespeare

The Bad Seed – William March – Aff Link

The Bad Seed (1956)

Matthew 13

The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link

Richard Traverner

Barchester Towers – Anthony Trollope – Aff Link

Doggerel

L'Albatros – Charles Baudelaire

Frame Stories

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Join us today for some lighthearted fun as we discuss Opalite from 2025’s The Life of a Showgirl. When Taylor Swift made this song a single and gave us the most perfect music video in the history of music videos, I felt like we had to cover it.

Be on the lookout for more Opalite content on Patreon!

Works Cited:

How to Write a Dizain

Iambs

Trochees

Pluperfect tense

Possession – A.S. Byatt – Aff Link

About Time (2013)

Brooklyn (2015)

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In this episode, we are taking a trip through the wildest winter with evermore from 2020. Uncle Jerry once again blows Angela’s mind with some folklore tropes relating to the dog days, and with some tidbits about Carl Jung’s theory on the Anima.

If you’d like to see us listen to the song and enjoy the episode ad-free, you can now join us on Patreon!

Works Cited:

Cats (2019)

Fats Waller

Apostrophe literary device

Gerard Manley Hopkins

William Somerset Maugham

The Burning of Lord Byron’s Memoirs

Emily Dickinson – burned letters

Jane Austen – burned letters

Charles Dickens Bonfire

The Hero with a Thousand Faces – Joseph Campbell – Aff Link

Carl Jung

The Anima

The Raven – Edgar Allan Poe

Sonnet 29 – William Shakespeare

Evermore lyric video

Evermore x Peter Mashup

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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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