In this episode, we are covering Hoax, the closing track from 2020’s folklore. Uncle Jerry starts out a bit iffy on his feelings about the poem, but talking through it with Angela helps him find extra meaning.

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Works Cited:

Anaphora

Ellipsis

Oxymoron

Polysemy

Parallelism

Paradox

Fatalism

Faithless Love – Linda Ronstadt

i sing of Olaf glad and big – e.e. cummings

To a Mouse – Robert Burns

*Of Mice and Men – John Steinbeck

To a Louse – Robert Burns

Jonah 3 – Jonah Goes to Nineveh

Synecdoche

Metanarrative

The Lord’s Prayer

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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Continuing along our folklore journey, this episode covers exile, the collaboration between Taylor Swift and Bon Iver. Uncle Jerry teaches us about different types of exile and how they appear across literature and folk tales. We then dig into the poem and Uncle Jerry admits to Angela that he almost cheated and listened to the song because he was so ready to hear how they spoke over each other. 

Also, ICYMI, we will be finishing the entire folklore album. Stay tuned over the next few weeks as we tackle the remaining tracks and then do a comprehensive overview.

Song discussion starts at 19:12

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Works Cited:

Just Give Me a Reason – Pink ft. Nate Ruess

The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri 

Gilgamesh, Nature, and Civilization

Paradise Lost – John Milton

The Odyssey – Homer

Exile of Ovid

Poems From Exile: Ex Ponto, Book I – Ovid

*Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

*Crime and Punishment – Fyodor Dostoevsky

*Ulysses – James Joyce

*Dubliners – James Joyce

*A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man – James Joyce

Polyphony in Contemporary Literature

Dramatic irony

Assonance

Alliteration

Iambic tetrameter

Iambic trimeter

Ballad meter or common measure

Synecdoche

Phaedrus

Epistrophe

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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We are tackling one of the most underrated tracks from Taylor Swift’s folklore album, epiphany. The poem compares past war tragedies to 2020’s pandemic, and Uncle Jerry uses the poem to teach us about Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory. 

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Works Cited:

Wilfred Owen

Siegfried Sassoon

The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner – Randall Jarrell

The Angels at Hamburg – Randall Jarrell

Vignette poems

Rhapsody on a Windy Night – T. S. Eliot

Trochees

Iambs

The Song of Hiawatha – Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Ernest Hemingway’s Iceberg Theory

*Death in the Afternoon – Ernest Hemingway 

Caesura

Parallelism

Synecdoche

*The Things They Carried: The Classic Work of American Literature on War, Memory, and Storytelling –Tim O'Brien 

*Man's Search for Meaning – Viktor E. Frankl 

Sonnet 19: When I consider how my light is spent – John Milton

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We are back in our Tortured Poets Era with Chloe or Sam or Sophia or Marcus. This song was much-requested and was voted on by our Patreon subscribers. Angela and Uncle Jerry talk through the poem and Uncle Jerry concedes that sometimes we try to find too much meaning in certain images.

Works Cited:

Sadie and Maud – Gwendolyn Brooks

maggie and milly and molly and may – e.e. cummings

[in Just-] – e.e. cummings

Brylcreem commercial

Synecdoche

Sonnet 12 – William Shakespeare

Sonnet 60 – William Shakespeare

Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare

My Boyfriend’s Back – The Angels

Cold Cold Heart – Hank Williams

Ellipse in Linguistics

To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell

Tricolon

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We’re back in our Speak Now era with Dear John. Angela explains the lore behind this quintessential track 5 from Taylor Swift, and Uncle Jerry talks himself into being a fan of this poem. 

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Works Cited:

Dear John Letter

Agnes von Kurowsky

*A Farewell to Arms – Ernest Hemingway 

A Dear John Letter – Jean Shepard & Ferlin Husky

Dear John Letter – Whitney Houston

Epistolary frame

Poetic Inversion

Dramatic Irony

Metapoetry

Metonymy 

The Scholar-Gipsy – Matthew Arnold

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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This week is the one year podcast anniversary, and Angela saved this song especially for this episode. But before we tackle seven from folklore, Angela and Uncle Jerry reflect on the past year and Angela surprises him with a little quiz to see just how much he’s learned about Taylor Swift and swiftie culture.

Thanks for being here with us!

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Works Cited:

7 as the number of completion

Apostrophe

Imperatives

Pastoral PoetryDramatic Irony

Assonance

To His Coy Mistress – Andrew Marvell

American Primitive – Mary Oliver*

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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We’re taking it back to 1989 with the only Taylor Swift song Uncle Jerry knew before we started this project. Angela expected this to be a quick, simple episode, but Uncle Jerry found a lot of deeper meaning in the glitter gel pen poem.

Works Cited:

Catalog Poem

Dr. J. Don Vann

A Handbook to Literature – William Harmon & Hugh Holman – Aff Link

Goblin Market – Christina Rossetti

Why We Oppose Pockets for Women – Alice Duer Miller

Anaphora

Metonymy

Onomatopoeia

Epizeuxis

Polyptoton

Tautological

The Waking – Theodore Roethke

Apostrophe

Shake It Off music video 

Stars – Richard Dyer – Aff Link 

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Today we return to Angela’s beloved Red era with State of Grace! Uncle Jerry surprises her with his excitement about the poem, and they go through all the ideas of love Taylor presents throughout the opening track.

And there’s gravy all over the plate!

Works Cited:

In medias res

Kinetic or kinesthetic imagery

Metonymy

Parallel structure

A Midsummer Night's Dream – William Shakespeare – Aff Link

Concrete Poetry

A to Z Horoscope Maker and Interpreter – Llewellyn George – Aff Link

Synecdoche

Synecdoche vs. metonymy

Litotes

The Literate Mode of Cicero's Legal Rhetoric – Dr. Richard Leo Enos Ph.D. – Aff Link

Manos: The Hands of Fate – (1966)

Hesiod – Richard Lattimore – Aff Link

Sonnet 130: My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun – William Shakespeare

Tricolon

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Angela finally introduces Uncle Jerry to a pivotal track 5 from Taylor Swift’s discography—You’re On Your Own, Kid. They discuss the real life events that could have inspired the song and Uncle Jerry talks about other pieces of pop culture that tell a similar story.

Works Cited:

Anaphora

Colloquial diction

Dramatic irony

Free indirect discourse

Verbal irony

Auditory imagery

Metonymy

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn – Mark Twain – Aff link

The Divine Comedy – Dante Alighieri – Aff link

Sonnet 73 – William Shakespeare

The Great Escape (1963)

Li'l Abner

Parataxis

Father and Son – Cat Stevens

Keep a-Goin’ – Frank L. Stanton 

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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In this episode, Uncle Jerry and Angela tackle The Great War from 2022’s Midnights. Uncle Jerry wrestles with the idea of using a horrific event as a metaphor, and he teaches all about the many floral symbols used throughout the poem.

Works Cited:

The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady – Edith Holden – Aff Link

The Great War and Modern Memory – Paul Fussell – Aff Link

The Strange Destiny of Rupert Brooke Hardcover – John Lehmann

Siegfried Sassoon

Memoirs of an Infantry Officer: The Memoirs of George Sherston – Siegfried Sassoon – Aff Link

Goodbye to All That – Robert Graves – Aff Link

All Quiet on the Western Front (1930)

War Poems – Wilfred Owen – Aff Link

Dulce et Decorum Est – Wilfred Owen

Poetry of the First World War: An Anthology – Tim Kendall – Aff Link

The Soldier – Rupert Brooke

In Flanders Fields – John McCrae

The History and Rhymes of the Lost Battalion – Buck Private McCollum – Aff Link

Crimson & Clover – Tommy James and the Shondells

The Swiftie and The Scholar Grading Matrix

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