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

Episode Date: March 12, 2026

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 IambsTrocheesPluperfect tensePossession – A.S. Byatt – Aff LinkAbout Time (2013)Brooklyn (2015)Follow Us:Patreon⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

Alrighty. Are you ready? Are we centered? Do we look good? Yes. Yes, we do. You look like the Onyx Knight and I look like Opelite. Yes, that's the intention. To The Swifty and the Scholar, the podcast where we examine the lyrics, lore, and literary legacy of Taylor Swift. I am Angela McDowell, the Swifty.

And I am Dr. Jerry Coates, the scholar. Yes, we did it. How are you doing, Uncle Jerry? You know, I'm doing well, thank you. It's so weirdly warm here. Certainly is. It's mid-February. It's currently 70 degrees outside.

Like two weeks ago, we were frozen in our houses. It's crazy. I'm like, I have flip-flops on today. Yeah. I mean, I work for a flip-flop company, so it's not that weird, but it is warm outside. Anyway. Anyway. We're going to be showgirls today.

You excited about that? I am excited. be a showgirl always yes so this is our third song from the life of a showgirl is it we did um yeah we did oh we did father figure yeah and of course we'll feel you yes yeah um today we're going to do opalite because taylor has just made this a single and there is now a music video which is maybe my favorite thing that she's done lately it is so silly so quirky so full of joy so fun. It came at exactly the right time, I think, and I just want us to watch that music video, so that's why we're here. Okay. That sounds fun. People have been asking you to break down

the music video because it's full of visual metaphors. Oh, all right. And we will do that a different time. Oh. Any day now. Okay. But yeah, this is from 2025, like, Life of a Showgirl, all the songs on this album are written and produced by Taylor, Max Martin, and Shelbach. And I think that's it. This is just a, I think just before this, we were talking about how we just recorded Cassandra, and now we're doing Opelight, and that is a little bit of a whiplash situation. That's a lot, a lot different. I will have to say, you sent me Cassandra, and I read it and read it and read it and read it and

thought and thought, and I had to actually get on my computer, and I had so many notes, I had to type them on separate pages. And I thought Cassandra was really fascinating with a multitude of thematic ideas that drove it. And then you gave me opalite. Yes. These were written with two different pens that Taylor has. Okay.

Yes. I would say that Cassandra is maybe a found pen bordering on quill pen. And this is pure glitter. gel pen definitely glitter gel but you know it's fun to highlight the the range that she writes with yeah that's why i'm as you pointed out dressed as the onyx night yes that's night with an end not with a k right um okay let's do it it's just a fun little bop it is it's just a fun romp yes so it's very cute um so okay verse one yeah or opal light. I guess we start with a title.

Yes. You know, as someone who took a course in mineralogy, and as someone who loves to collect rocks, I've got some of them are back there. Yeah. You have any ophthal? Oh, here's more. Here's a amethyst ball. There's something here. What's this?

Oh, yeah, yeah. Amazanite crystals. Oh, this is rose quartz. My necklace is rose quartz. Yeah, it's polished rose quartz. Yeah, this has only one polished side, so it looks a little like it. So, yeah, I mean, I collect, oh, here's a tiny geode. Cute.

I don't know, I mean, I just, these things are just sort of all around. Yeah. As I mentioned before, I once took a vacation just to go rock hunting. I've been up to Mount Manel down by Austin looking for geodes and things like that. So, yeah, I do. I love that stuff. So her use of the word opalite is interesting to me because opalite's a fabricated stone.

Right. Okay, so it's man-made, but I hesitate to use, you know, gendered terms. Man and woman made. Human-made. Human-made. Opalite. It's very pretty. You know, it's opalescent.

They manufacture opalite. so that it looks like opal. Sometimes it looks like Moonstone. Moonstone is just a quark that's highly included. That means it has lots of fractures in it. And so either one could be considered that. As a man-made stone, I have to admit, I'm a little prejudicially disposed against it.

Right. You know, I don't really care for a lot of man-made stuff, you know, although I've seen it. I've seen it titrated out, you know. So I've seen the process. You know, there are also manufactured rubies, emeralds, sapphires, diamonds, of course. You know, when they, when they manufacture them, they tend to come out without a lot of inclusions. You know, one of the charm of a gemstone like emeralds is that it has multiple inclusions.

or I think I have a piece of quartz back there that has a little striations in it. You know, so, you know, different objects sometimes can be trapped. I've got one that has a little water vacuole trapped in it. Yeah, I mean, you know, some of the points that I have have ghost points where they grew and then they stopped growing and then they grew some more. and so you can see the original called a ghost point. That's cool. Yeah.

So I'm pretty fascinated by what nature does. Generally, manufactured items are less expensive or less prized. It's not always true, but opalite certainly is kind of a less expensive, less prized over opal in its various forms. So when I think of opalite, I think of kind of a cheap, glassy. manufactured thing. Yeah, okay. And personally, I would prefer onyx. Right.

The point is, though, that it is man-made. That's right, yes. So the point is that Opelite is manufactured, right? That it is something that we make. And so it has our, I don't know, the thrust of our creativity embedded in it. And that's really her thematic idea here. Yes. I get that.

Yes, I know you do. Yeah. Do I still like it? Not really. But yeah. So it does have a point, and we can talk about that. Yes. Okay, verse one.

Yes. So first of all, let me point out the verse form. Okay, yeah. So it has 10 lines. I think you could divide it into 5 and 5. So they're quatrains or quintet. But it's called a Dazine, a 10-line stanza. And usually,

they're rhymed A, B, A, B, C, C, D, C, D, C, D. And this is not rhymed that way. You know, we've got habit, past, it, trash, last. So, you know, past and last, do rhyme. And then haunted ghosts, couples, no, no comes close to those ghosts, but don't. You know, so, yeah, we do rhyme some, but not like, a typical to Zane

which would be the 10-line stanza but she's going to sing this through so that's okay too the poem starts in the past tense

I had a bad habit and now you're going to be impressed yes so you have mentioned what could have shoulda to me it feels like that would match that title

oh absolutely yeah what would have happened what could have happened what should have happened with a bad habit because she is missing of missing lovers past, right? Yeah. And now we have L-O-M-L. Yeah.

See, aren't I getting... Look at you. I know. Just a little swiftly. Connecting songs. I know. You know, that is something that I have not been able to do. Yeah.

Because... Well, I haven't really given you tons that are... Well, yeah. I mean, honestly, yeah, for those of you who are listening, you know, the only songs I know are the songs Angel, with one exception, are the songs Angela has given me. So, you know, the complete extent of my understanding of her work is limited to 29 songs. Yeah, yeah. And, you know, so if she has, how many songs? Two or three hundred? Yeah, some are in the two hundreds, I think. Yeah. So I, maybe I know a tenth of her work. Yeah. It's pretty good, though. So my ability to cross

reference is fairly limited. So when I was doing it with this song, I thought, I, pretty proud of myself. Yeah, yeah, that's absolutely. And I feel like, I mean, I feel like we could even take that further and say that, you know, a lot of her songs are about missing lovers past, you know? Yeah. So I think it's very typical. Yeah, these are the only ones I know. So, yeah. So I wrote them down by that one credit for that. I'm giving it to you. Thank you. We do have a kind of a rhythmical pattern going of missing lovers past. Bump, Bump, Bump, my brother, you. used to call it, eating out of the trash. It's never going to last.

I thought my house was haunted. Yeah, yeah. Okay, so we have, I mean, she kind of goes back and forth between IMs and trokeys, and I am a stressed, unstress-hilable trokey, stressed, unstressed-hustleable. So she's kind of bouncing back and forth. I don't think she's doing it. I mean, I think she's doing it probably to match the sense of the song. You know, I do remember, I remember hearing the song when we saw the movie.

You know, and so the song is kind of bouncy and fun. It matches that glitter gel-ten, you know, tone. And so I think that the rhythmic pattern is bouncy and matches the tone of that song. Agree, yeah. It's also very typical of English verse overall. English verse does tend to be iambic. English speakers tend to use i.m's. English speakers tend to use i.m. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I think I told you the story of Ricardo Monta Bonn, who once sounded, before he learned to speak English, said we sounded like barking dogs. Yeah, I mean, I guess that kind of is true a little bit. So for those of you who are second language learners, yeah, English, barking dog. Yeah, there's an internal rhythmic element to the English language that tends to do that. We tend to have stressed, unstressed syllables that are paired off. we don't tend to have a lot you know

we're not Farsi or you know some Urdu you know some languages that have multiple paired syllables you know so this is the way we talk it's just kind of yeah it is yeah it is us and I think that's kind of

the other songs that we've talked about that have this really specific rhyme are the other pop like super pop heavy the other Max Martin songs like I think we talked about that with Blank's base, which is another Max Martin produced track. So I think that's just a function of working with someone who creates these like pop hits, you know. I think it is.

It's the music that drives the rhythmic pattern more than the poetics. Right. So, yeah, I'm going to foreshadow and say, is this a great poem? It's fun. Yeah, exactly. Okay. So I had a bad habit of missing lovers. past. So this is, again,

in the past, already. I'm not doing that anymore. Right. So she's like stacked two times. She's got the plume perfect going on. The past past. Okay. So yeah, in English tense, as you we do have, in a lot of languages, they have multiple levels of the

past. So there's the past and then there's the past that happened before the past. Oh, God. My brother used to call it, okay, this is going to be a theme in her poem that she relies on the advice, the close advice of others, people whom she trusts. So specifically her family in this.

Her family members, right. They appear in this poem. Yeah. So my brother used to call it the advice of others eating out of the trash. Hilarious. Thank you, Austin. It's a hilarious line, right? Oh, that's right.

Austin is her brother's name. Uh-huh. Yeah. Emily Dickinson's brother's name. Exactly. Yeah, we talked about that. Yeah, it's a hilarious line. Obviously, metaphorical.

This is a metaphor. So trash is something that you should have disposed of. It is something that should have been thrown away at this point and should not be recoverable. And the idea that she was eating out of it instead of having real food. That's also kind of funny that like Austin's also speaking in metaphors. Like it just runs in the family, maybe. Maybe be. Yeah. So, yeah, so, you know, she understands from his advice that her past lovers maybe haven't been quite up to par. Right. Yeah. And now, of course, I'm wondering, are they all sitting around going, is she talking about me?

And the answer is, yes. Yes, she is. You trash. It's never going to last. Okay. I, um, I, thought my house was haunted. Okay, my house metaphor. Right? She uses the house metaphor in Cassandra. Yes. Right. And so, I know, aren't I amazing the way I'm cross-referencing?

You are. You are. And that it was haunted. This is, again, very typical Taylor Swift. She loves the whole haunted ghosts. The ghosts are everywhere. The ghosts are everywhere. Yeah.

And someone surely has written a paper on... Yeah, we got to find that. Yeah, on ghosts. You know, when we're done, with all this. Okay, let me just give you a forewarning. When we're done with all this, I think, because I do this without research, right? I use my own resources, you know, but I don't, I don't go online and see what other people have said, or I don't go and see if there's a paper written on ghosts in Taylor Swift's discography. I don't do that. I really just want to rely on my own

initial response. Right. But or and and it would be interesting when we're all done and we're just tired of this. Over it. I know. I'm tired of just saying, ah, that's another metaphor people. It would be interesting to go back and see what the literature does say and do a comprehensive lit review. Yeah. It's what we do in academics. Yeah.

There was one time, this was very early on and I can't even remember I don't remember the specifics of like what you you mentioned a like a literary term or something and to I link everything that we talk about I link in the the episode descriptions so that y'all can go learn and you know learn more about the things that Uncle Jerry is teaching us about and you mentioned some literary term and I went to Google it and I found a paper that a woman had written using that literary term to talk about Taylor Swift songs.

And it was like on the first page of results. So it was like, you know, people are just talking about that related to, I think it might have been champagne problems or something. So I know there's tons out there. Oh, sure. I just don't know what they are exactly. I mean, it's true that I'm brilliant, but there are also other brilliant people. Yes, yes.

And there are people, you know, who do literary studies on songs as literature. You know, I have not in my own research, but it's been fun to you. Now you have. Now I have. Yeah, you know, if I were a serious, if I wanted to be a serious literary scholar in the vein of Taylor Swift, I would do a lit review. A lot of dissertations, some theses will begin with a lit review. You know, what have people published in the past about this author or this particular work? and then what am I going to say about it that's different from or in addition to what they have published.

So, yeah, it would be kind of fun when we're done to go back and do a lit review on one of these songs. Yeah. Well, like Cassandra, which has a great deal of depth to it, or Ivy, which has a multi-aity meaning. It would be fun to go back and do a lit review and say, okay, what if other people said about it? And then what could I say about it that would be different? You know, what would my interpretation of Cassandra's, you know, mythological referencing in the modern world have to say about the poem and us? Yeah, I want you to do that.

You know, when we're done with this. Okay. Okay. So, yeah, she thought her house was haunted. She had so many. She'd been eating out of the trash so long. They're just all around still. Yeah.

I used to live with ghosts. Oh, you mean people? who are, are you ready, talking rings and talking candles? I know. I know. They're dancing phantoms. Dancing phantoms on the terrace. I know, right?

I also think whenever she says this one, the vision that comes to my mind, I think just because it has like an actual image is the anti-hero music video that we just recently watched where she has, there's like people wearing sheets, you know, like a ghost. in her house. They're just like sitting around the kitchen table. Just hanging out. Yeah, that's what I was picture. The memories of all these crappy guys are just kind of hanging out with a goofy sheet over.

Exactly. Just in the corner. Well, you know what she needs to do is she needs to have a priest come and exercise her demons. Oh my gosh. Look at you. I know. I thought of black dog. Right?

So I wrote that down on my notes. Oh, my gosh. So many callbacks. Yeah. Well, again, this is my. Limited 10% understanding of her lyrics. Yeah, that's good though. Yeah, you know, so my comment is going to be that she is referencing

previous works and motifs. Right. Which makes sense. Sure. Because she's talking about like, that was all wrong. I was doing it all wrong and here's what I changed to like, you know. Yeah, I mean, this is clearly in terms of tone, a lighthearted, ironic, you know, you could say a little sarcastic.

but certainly very light-toned work. Yeah. So even though there are ghosts. Yes. So yes, there are ghosts. And all the perfect couples said, when you know, you know. And when you don't, you don't.

So essentially, she's again seeking advice, right? The perfect couples. Now, I don't know what perfect couple she might know. It's funny because this resonated for me because Leslie, my wife, You know, we got married just a few years ago, and she had not been married before. She waited until she found me, which was lucky for me. But she, it's funny because she mentions a couple of different couples that she talked with about getting married.

And one of them is her cousin, and she thinks that her cousin and her cousin's husband are just a perfect couple. And they are, I've met them. They are just wonderful people, you know. And it's just, it's sweet that we seek out that kind of advice. Yeah, I do have a story or what I think this is referencing for Taylor. Oh, really? Yes. So.

You know the perfect couple. Well, no. But, well, I mean, me, obviously. And Juniper. No, just kidding. Chase. Chase, Chase, not Juniper. Chase is just slightly below the dog.

He knows that. I'm always like, you're my favorite, except for Juniper. and some days Taylor Swift. So there is our good buddy, Jack Antonoff. Yes. His band is called Bleachers. And do you know Lana Del Rey? Yes, I do.

She works a lot with Jack as well. Oh, okay. And she has a song titled. I actually like her, although I haven't heard a lot from her lately. Taylor and her have a song together as well. Oh, we should do that. Not one of my favorites. But Lana Del Rey has a song titled Margaret

About when Jack and his now wife Margaret met And in Margaret she says When You Know You Know You And then that song actually features bleachers Which is Jack Antonoff's band And Jack Antonoff's part says something about like if you have to ask Then that's your answer basically So she's like when you know you know when you know you know and then Jack is like yeah and if you have to ask then you don't it's the answer's no

the answer is no yeah I get that well that's kind of so I think that's like a direct kind of reference to that song oh that's fun yeah yeah yeah I mean I I think that she's like all of us seeking out the advice of family friends people we admire people who have done it right right and and maybe the best answer is when you know you know and when you don't you don't so i you know essentially what she's saying is use your intuition right go back and be cassandra and the feminine intuition you know in in that trope is a powerful tool it's a powerful instrument um you know take it out of your toolbox and use it yeah so yeah i mean there's not a lot more to this verse no you know usually i'm throwing down a lot of literary devices

or, you know, multiple interpretive elements. Yeah, it's pretty straightforward. Yep. It's pretty self-referential. I think so, too. Yeah. You know, and the use of the way I felt, you know, thinking about Black Dog or L-O-M-L or things like that, you know,

as she's going over in her mind past relationships, which she has written about before. So why not? Yeah. So the pre-chorus. Yes. And all of the foes and all of the friends, oh, you know, alliteration, very cute. But not alliteration that strikes deeply at the heart of the tone.

So I think it's lighthearted, right? It's just, I'm going to play with this. All the foes, the critics who have, you know, written about me, talked about me. Yeah, how bad I am at relationships. That's right. And all the friends, the swifties, you know, the thos, you know, the thursdays, the great cadre of people who follow her and support her. You know, she knows that both sides are out there.

And they've all seen it before. They'll see it again, ha-ha. And obviously inserting ha-ha, this is not a serious... We're not taking ourselves too seriously here. We started it by talking about eating out of the trash. Right, exactly. My life is a song. It's a metaphor, right?

But I think it is true. Her life has centered on her music for so long. Mm-hmm. You know, and her life literally has been lived out in her music. Yeah, absolutely. You know, at least as much as I know, you know, I mean, again, of the 29 songs you've shown me, so many of them are about her relationships and her joy and her angst, her promises and her hopes. So, you know, I think that it's true that her life is a song.

And it ends. When it ends, I was wrong. You know, we're assured that everything ends. Yeah. That's kind of what I get from that, right? Like she's like, in the past, she's written a little bit about, you know, is it going to be forever or is it going to go down in flames? I can see it end as it begins. Yeah.

So also, another call out is that we do have an acoustic version of this song that she put out. Oh. And not as fun, you know, but the lyric is changed here. And this one, in the acoustic version, it says love is a song. It ends when it ends. Oh, really? And I can't figure out why that happened, like why she did that. You know, I do like that, too.

Well, because I think her life and love are relatively synonymous. Everything is just kind of intertwined. Yeah. Or synonymously relative. Sorry, I'm just playing with words now Because it's a bit of a goofy song I don't mean goofy, I mean, she's playful Yeah, yeah, yeah

And yeah, you know, when she writes about her life And her loves in her music I mean, name one that came out Beautifully to perfection Yeah, just the one this is about Exactly, yeah, it's to this point Travis is the only guy who's made it to the finish well Close to it.

He's so close. Yeah, but, you know, I think it looks like he's going to get there. Yes. Right, but you've made a list for me of the people who did not. Some lasted years, some lasted months, some really only one night. Yeah, maybe. Yeah. You know, so for her, the expectation is that love ends when it ends.

Love always has an end, you know, that it's finite. Right. You know, now my love for, for, you know, Leslie. Diet Coke. Not Diet Coke, Leslie. Infinite, infinite. Right. And so it's fun that she says at the end of the pre-corrhs, I was wrong, right?

She says it ends when it ends, kind of a shrug, which is a terrible way to feel about a love relationship. Yeah. going into it expecting it to end yeah yeah this is going to be great for a while but i know it'll be over sooner yeah but in this case i was wrong Travis has has been around has stayed around and it looks like he might be the permanent deal yeah well good for you Travis um so we get to the course yes but my mama told me it's all right oh now we're to the mama okay so we visited her brother, her friends, or the perfect ones, and

now we're at the mama. So again, she's making the rounds of seeking advice and look at the rhythmic pattern, but my mama told me it's all right, but bum-p-pum-pum-pum, right? You were dancing through the lightning strikes.

So if there's a great line in this poem, I think this is it. And I'm sorry, you've done this to me because you told me several times ago, this is my favorite line. Yeah, I know. I do like to point out favorite lines. So I'm going to say this is my favorite line. Okay. Yeah, I do. I mean, it's very fun. It's

like such a fun image. Yes. Yeah. And it's metaphorical, right? And yeah, it's a fun image. She's dancing through lightning strikes. So you know, she's you know, she's

been able to dodge and weave through through the obstacles of life. And stay dancing through it all. Yeah, then she's still dancing, right? She's making it through through all these dancing phantoms. I have water in my mouth. Gotcha.

And she almost takes me to a place where I think, oh, this is going to get serious. sleepless in the onyx night. So although dancing through the lightning strikes, maybe my favorite line, I think maybe the most beautiful line is sleepless in the onyx night. That's lovely. The adjective onyx is beautiful.

Yes, agreed. But then the use of another mineral, you know, gemstone, if you will, onyx is agate. It's a kind of quartz. and, you know, the use of that is really beautiful. And when I think of Onyx, it is black. But it's not always completely black.

There'll be striatious streaks of Calcidney that run through it. Calcidney is actually kind of like opalite. It's like an opalescent white material. And in some art, people will. take Onyx with a lot of the Calcidney running through it, a lot of the white streaks, and they will polish it away, and they'll make cameos out of it. Okay. The, you know, what's interesting about Onyx, too, is it's black.

It reminds us sadness, death. In the Victorian age, Onyx was frequently used as a funerary jewelry. Oh. Yeah. So. Amos that makes sense. I know. So, guys, what's the name of the, there's a novel by W.S. Bryant possession in which this pair are trying to track down a pair of lovers from the 19th century, a pair of Victorian poets.

And they go to Whitby and they go to a jet shop and jet is petrified wood that's black. And Queen Victoria, after Prince Albert died, Queen Victoria would, tended to wear jet jewelry. or onyx jewelry. Yeah. Because it was black. She was perpetually in mourning after the death of her beloved husband. Makes sense.

Yeah. So, you know, when I see sleepless in the onyx night, it's a lovely image. It's not just black, but it's reminiscent of funeral. I guess I should say, just because I touch on the classics, onyx was actually used in ancient Rome as a symbol of strength.

it was considered to be the stone of Mars. I kind of like that. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's interesting. I think of sleepless in the Onyx night. That makes me think of Midnights, the album. Oh, yeah. Because you said that was things that keep her up in the middle of the night.

Oh, okay. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah. Oh, look at you. Yeah. Well, you started this. Yeah, I mean, I obviously think of the movie Sleepless in Seattle. battle.

A classic. That classic. I also think of the book, it's a dark night of the soul, you know, where you're staying up and trying to imagine, you know, what's the nature of the soul and how do I negotiate this life and the next?

I don't know. I just think it's a lovely line and a serious one that comes in the middle of what's otherwise a very lighthearted poem. But now, and you get the clear transition, it's like she's getting serious. with Onyx night and then she says oh no wait wait take it back yeah glitter gel pen she tried to be a tortured poet for a second I know just for a second she said no no I'm a showgirl

now and that's why I'm thinking about onyx you know what does it mean in the classical age what did it mean to the Romans what did it mean to the Victorians you know how does it work as a symbol of death of darkness and then it's like oh nope nope but now the sky is opal light so opalite you know, like moonstone, like opal, multiple colors, translucent, glittering, conveying light as much as it reflects and refracts. Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh. I don't remember how she sings this, but I honestly, like, can't even get it in my head right now. Like, I'm like trying to be like, how do that light, how do all those OOs go?

Yeah. The sky is probably a metaphor, right? Yeah. It's limitless like her future. So I think the sky is a metaphor for, you know, eternity, the opposite of love that she found ended when it ended. Yeah. Right. So the sky is limitless, eternal.

You know, her future is. Yeah. Yeah. And she's another song all about, like, finding, you know, being, having a bad time and then finding happiness. And it's all about day. It's called daylight. Oh, okay. So kind of the same thing.

Right. Yeah. to be happiness. And just that idea that opalite reflects some multity of color, you know, and it's translucent

so it conveys light. Yeah. And she just seems overwhelmed with it in the next line. Oh, my Lord. Oh, my Lord. I know. Never made no one like you before.

You know, so, okay, so now I get the use of opalite. Never made no one like you before. Onyx is naturally occurring. but, you know, Onyx is dark and conveys another meaning. And maybe if she has a serious theme here, one of those serious themes is you have to be in charge of your own life.

Exactly. Right. Yes. So Opelite is manufactured. If I'm going to find real love that is lasting and it doesn't just end when it ends. I'm not just going to shrug again with the expectation. It'll be over. I have to make it.

Right? It's, you know, I have to be in charge. Yeah, I have to keep choosing to move forward. I have to stop eating out of the trash. Right. I have to do something different. A fun thing that we learned in the ERAs Tour documentary when they're backstage, her and her mom are backstage. And they're telling the story of Travis of how they met.

And we had known that somebody, you know, Travis called her. her out on her, on her, him and his brother's podcast and said, I tried to meet Taylor when she was in town in Kansas City and they wouldn't let me meet her. And I, I made her a friendship bracelet with my number on it, but they wouldn't let me give it to her. And she like, hey, they called this out on the podcast. Well, apparently, um, Taylor's mom, Andrea, she, she saw that. She saw all of that happening. And, um, she called up her cousin, who, um, um, she called up her cousin, who, lives in Kansas City and is a huge Kansas City Chiefs fan and said, it was Robin. She said, I called cousin Robin and I said, tell me about this guy.

And Robin said, he's great and he loves his mom. Was that it? That's all they told us. I don't know. And so, you know, up to this point, Taylor had like only dated these like artsy, struggling like, too good for you. actors and songwriters and stuff. And she said that when Andrea called Taylor and said,

we've got to do something different, I just saw that this guy brought something because she said, I just really appreciated how he was trying to come into your world. He came to your show. He made a friendship bracelet. He was like not trying to bring you into his world. He was trying to come into your world, which is like different than these other men before.

And so she said, I think you need to, like, give him a call and see what's up. So we learned in that that Taylor's mom is the reason that... Why they're together? Yeah. Wow. Okay. Isn't that funny?

That still blows my mind. Yeah. Yeah, that is funny. But then it matches the tone of the song where she seeks out, you know, the brother, the mother, the friends whom she respects. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, that's kind of a fun story to... Yeah.

Okay. So, yeah, you have to do it. it. You have to take charge. You have to manufacture your own relationship. Yes. And she kind of ends the stanza. It ends the chorus with that, but you had to make your own sunshine, but now the sky is opalite. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa. Yeah. And so this whole, this whole chorus, I'm just realizing, is in parentheses. Mm. Not parentheses. Quotation marks. Oh, it's in quotes. Yeah.

And so all of this is her mom saying, is saying, her mom is saying all of this. Yes, it is. This is all her mom's advice. Yeah. So her mom gets serious and then the mom says, but you need to take charge of your life. Yes.

And go meet this nice boy who loves his mom. Exactly right. Yes. Verse two. Yes. Okay. You couldn't understand it. Why you felt alone.

You were in it for real. Got to change page. Oh, she was in your phone and you were just a pose. What do you get from this? You know, I didn't know who she was in her phone. So I think that that first verse is about Taylor and her mom and about Taylor's relationships. And I think this verse is about Travis's relationship before. Oh, really?

Yes. Oh, okay. I didn't know you had a relationship before. Yes. We're not going to get into that because that's weird. But yes, he was. How weird. She just, she won't stop now.

Like, she's still, like, like, she's kind of just known as, like, Travis's ex, who hates Taylor now. But I think this is about her, like, so I think this is about him. So this is her, I think, talking to Travis. Like, you couldn't understand it why you felt alone in that relationship because you were in it and you thought she was in it too. But she was just in her phone and she was just dating you to like look good on Instagram together. Right. Yeah, this is me with Travis.

Yes, this is me at the game. This is me after the game. This is me out. Yes, I get it. Yeah. Oh. And why, okay, so this is one of my other. favorite lines. And just because it's got two different meanings, why don't we try to love, love,

and then in parenthetical inclusion, love, comma, love. So why don't we try to love love? Why don't you just love the emotion, right? It's time that you just embrace love. And then she says, love, which is an imperative verb, comma, love, which is the noun of direct address. Am I using too many grammar terms for you? Maybe. Yeah. So the fun thing about the parenthetical inclusion is kind of common between it. So you've got to love my love.

Okay, yeah, I get you. Yeah. So the second love is Travis. Yeah. She's calling him love. Yes. The first love is the imperative verb form telling him you have to love. Do it.

You must love my love. Gotcha. Yes. Right. But the first love love is you've got to embrace. the emotion when you have it. Right? So you've got to love love. And you've got to

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it's a fun play on words because it's love, love, love, yeah. But separated

by the comment, there's a question mark in between they all mean different things.

They all mean different things. Yeah, that's nice. Yeah, I think that's fun.

It's a fun play on words. We give it all we've got. Give it all we got. Okay, so this is a cliche, and she doesn't do anything with it. Completely non-Taylor

Swifty. Yeah, that's very true. Yeah, usually she takes cliches and twists them or gives them a funny ending or gives them a sarcastic or satiric or something, but no, this is just the cliche. Yeah. Give it all you got. It also sounds very much like something you'd tell a football player. It does. It does, like, sound like, yes, agreed. Yeah. just go out there and give it all you got. Give it 100%. Yeah. Leave it on the field.

Yeah. Or something maybe that he says. And so she's like echoing it back to him or something. That's what I'm wondering is this football lingo. You know, I had a basketball coach once he would end our locker room talk before the game. He'd always say, you know, get out there and have fun. But remember, it's more fun to win than to lose. He's not wrong.

I know. I always thought that was funny. Get out there and have fun. But remember, it's more fun to win than to lose. Get out there and get it all you got. You finally left the table. Uh-oh. Uh-oh.

So, you know, you finally left the table of eating trash. You know, so we're echoing the whole eating metaphor from the very first stanza. Yeah. You know, and literally push away from the table, push away from this banquet, you know, this smorgish board of guy after guy after guy after guy. And what a simple thought. You're starving till you're not, you know. So yeah, eating trash ain't no fun. Yeah.

She's been starving up to now. Yeah. So again, we have this metaphor. If there is a consistent metaphorical use in this poem, it surrounds eating. Yeah, it certainly does, doesn't it? Yeah. So love as food. She's been starved.

for love up to now. Yeah, so she uses tables a bit. There is in the song lover. She says it's like all about, it's like kind of like these are all the things that I will do and I do do do for you, you know, blah, blah, blah. Did you just say do do? I was hoping you would you would just let me get.

No, I'm not going to. I was hoping you would just let that pass. Yeah, go ahead. Yeah, just let the do-do pass. Okay. Anyway. She says, at every table, I'll save you a seat. Oh.

And then on the Erez tour, there's a song from Evermore called Tolerate It. That's like, my love should be celebrated, but you just tolerate it. And the performance changed the song for me. Sorry, I know that was rough. That's a funny, that's a fun line. Yeah, we'll have to do that one soon because I really do this, this performance like changed the song for me. Yeah, there's a big difference between being loved and being tolerated. Yes, yes.

But the performance for this song is just a huge long table and there's a guy sitting at one end and Taylor is like throwing stuff off the table and she's up on the table crawling towards him and he's just sitting there like nothing, you know. And so I feel like she uses table. quite a bit to be like, you know, it's sort of like the house. It's like the place where you gather, you know. But even at those tables, like these other people, the other people, both Travis and for Travis and for Taylor, like, they're just not giving you anything, nothing to eat. Well, that's fun. Okay, the pre-chorus of all the foes and all the friends, so we're back to that.

Yes. Have messed up before. They'll mess up again. Ha-ha. Kind of cute. life is a song, it ends when it ends, and you move on, which is a little different from, you know, the middle line have messed up before, they'll mess up again,

and I was wrong, and she says, you move on. So, yeah, I guess you just move on. That's when I told you, that's when I told you, now she's the one giving advice. Yeah, okay. She's repeating her mom's words. Yeah, it's all right. You were dancing through the lightning strikes,

sleepless in the onyx night the sky is opalite so you you make you find your joy you make your joy oh my lord never met anyone like you you had to make your own sunshine sunshine it's opalite so pretty much a repetition

of the previous yes but now she's like owning her mom's words which is pretty cool and then we go to the bridge yes the bridge this is just a storm inside a teacup okay it's kind of a cliche a tempest in a tea club, except now she is manipulating the cliche just a little bit.

And it's also a metaphor, right? Storm inside a teacup. So it's just a tiny, tiny bit of a kerfuffle. Yeah, I've definitely heard that saying before, but I didn't really know, like, what it meant. So is that just saying, like, this is just, it seems big because it's in a tiny space. Yeah, it's just. It seems big because we're in it right now. Right.

We're in it right now. It's just a little bit of a hiccup. It's not that big a deal. Gotcha. Shelter here with me, my love. So shelter under the storm. So again, she's extending that metaphor. Thunder like a drum.

So she's pushing that metaphor. I do like the line, this life will beat you up. Yes, yeah. beating of the thunder like a drum. So like a drum, simile, the thunder is yet another metaphor for the tiny upsets that we face.

So yeah, this is kind of fun. In terms of the literary devices, I think the bridge is the more complex element in the form. This is just a temporary speed bump, you know, secondary metaphor.

But failure brings you freedom. And I I can bring you love, love, love, love. So unlike the previous four loves. Yeah. Where she had two messages, I think this is pretty much just. Just the one. Uh-huh.

Just the one. This is my favorite part to sing. Oh, is that right? Yeah, in the car. Can you sing that? I will. Not on microphone now. How many of you would join Patreon to hear Angela sing?

Just as long as I don't have to sing. They love when you sing. I will sing. only if it's to ballad meter and I can sing it to the tune of the yellow rose of text. Jed clamp it. Jed clamp it, yeah. And then we go to the chorus. It's got my favorite word baby in it.

Yes. Don't you sweat it, baby. It's all right. Oh, please. But this is a glitter gel pen song, right? It's got to have a baby in it. We got to throw a baby in there. Don't you sweat it.

It's cliched. But you know what? She's going to embrace the cliché. that's okay because she says it's all right yeah yeah yeah i kind of feel like that bridge in this last chorus i always picture her saying that to travis like after he's had a bad game or something like it feels like something that he would that she would say to him yeah that she would say yeah um and then she's dancing through or there dancing through lightning strikes strikes, sleepless in the onyx night.

The sky is opalite, remember, it's glistony, multifaceted, multicolored, and limitless. Never met no one like you before. And then no. Nope. So apparently, she's never found anyone quite as open, clear, and honest, and limitless as good old Travis. You had to make your own sunshine, but now the sky is opalite. Beautiful. It's lovely.

It's just a fun little song. It is fun. You know, there are some themes, right? Yes. The theme of personal development. Okay, yeah. Right? The theme of perseverance, don't give up.

There are going to be lightning strikes. You know, there might be a storm and a teacup. There might be a temporary speed bump, right? Perseverance. I think there's also a juxtaposition of the past and the future. You remember we began in the past tense I had a bad habit Right

I no longer have it because I have you Love love love love love You know she met some really bad people who were like trash But now You know I've never met anyone like you No No So past versus present

And I did kind of skip by the comparative between light and darkness. You know, there's some nice work going on between light and dark. Yeah, agreed. Between opal light and onyx. Both of which begin with the letter O. Yeah, that's nice. So they're kind of bookend each other.

Okay, right, at different ends of a literal spectrum. Yeah. Yeah. So that's fun. You know, I don't mean to, when I use the word like cute, I don't mean to say it isn't a good song But as a poem, it's cute Yeah, yeah, it's just a sweet little

There's not a ton of depth here Yeah I think there's more than there is Just on the surface a little bit more But it's not a You know It's not Cassandra or Ivy or Right

So Long London Yeah, the poetic devices aren't as Complex And I don't think that she intends them to be Yeah. You know, I think it's, it is a celebration. Agreed. You know, so that's part of the tone, is the celebratory tone of the work really does come through.

And just, as you say, you can't start out with talking with a line like eating out of the trash and expect anyone to think the song is going to be filled with darkness and depth. Yes. I love that he said darkness and depth, because Taylor did describe Travis as depth without darkness. Oh, really? And that's exactly what this song is. Yeah. I couldn't agree more. Depth without the darkness.

There's no onics here. Just opal light. Yeah, agreed. Okay. Anything else? I don't think so. It's fun. We are going to, I think we'll just watch the music video.

Okay. The music video is a 90s dream, which is my favorite. I love it so much. As I said before, we will, after Uncle Jerry sees this, and I think I'm going to assign you. This is fun. Now, I get to be the one assigning instead of you being the one assigning. You always assign me.

No, I know, but I mean like in your career. Oh, yes. Yeah, you mean for the past 48 years I was making the assignments? Yes. Yeah. I kind of want to break down the music video as if, like, in the same way that you do this. Okay, for its visual imagery, metaphor and that kind of thing. Sure.

Okay. So we're going to watch it and we'll be right back and then we'll talk about all of those things at a later date. But we'll be right back. Okay. Okay. Yes. About time. Give me your thoughts.

It's so fun. Are we going to do this later on or am I going to... You can talk about it now, but I want you to have like time with it later. Yeah. Donald Gleason is one of my favorite actors. Yeah. I think he's brilliant. I think his dad is brilliant.

You know, his dad was in Banshees of Inesir. Yeah, my favorite movie. He was nominated for the Academy Award. But the younger Gleason was in Brooklyn, and I love that movie. That is, as a matter of fact, the first movie Leslie and I ever saw it together. It was on, I think, our third date. Cute. And it's a brilliant movie with Sir Eish Leronen.

Yeah. I think she's amazing. Yeah, me too. And he's in the movie About Time, which I just love. It is, you know, everybody's got a guilty pleasure. Is that with, um... Rachel McAdams. Okay, yeah, I was going to say Regina George, and I was like, that's not her real name.

And Bill Nyee. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, he kills me every time. Yeah, so it's a goofy, quirky, call it a sci-fi romance. I don't know. It's written by Richard Curtis, who also wrote. Love Actually and Brooklyn

And Richard Curt So Love actually There's that movie Valentine's Day That's like the same style With like all the ensemble cast And Taylor was in that Oh was she really? Yeah

Oh wow You know I didn't realize she was in Cats For goodness sakes Cats was on Netflix It was going off I thought maybe I should watch it It's terrible It's so bad

Yeah Of course based on lyrics by T.S. Eliot, the song Midnight, isn't in Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats, but now I go off. Yeah. I do tend to do that.

Yeah, it's okay. Lots of connections. I know. I love Richard Curtis's work. I think Love actually is just a fun Christmas movie. You know, and so, yeah, about time is just pure fun, and he's great in it. You know, he's also, Gleason's also in the Harry Potter movie.

He's Bill Weasley, and he's in, he plays some general in the last three of the Star Wars Trilogies. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, he's great, you know, not great movies. I don't know. Yeah, so he, she like pulled everybody from that. So he made that joke.

He's just trying to make a little joke. And then Taylor's like, actually, I'm going to hire you. And then she's like, not just you, but everybody else on this. couch right now, including Graham Norton, who's just hosting. Right. Like, how fun. And they all did it.

Even Killian Murphy, he wasn't in it, but his voice. Yeah, but his voice is the infomercial at the beginning. Oh, I didn't realize that. That's his voice. Okay, that's fun. I love the style of it.

I love the infomercial. So fun. Yeah, I mean, it reminds me of, um, it reminds me a little of some of the things we're heard in Kill Bill. Um, if you saw Kill Bill 1 or He loves that kind of retro sound and feel.

So, yeah, that was fun. It was cute. Very glitter gel. Lots of glitter gel. Literal glitter gel that she smooths on a rock. Yeah. Yeah. So more to come on that video.

But I just love it so much. Like I can't stop thinking about it. I just think it's so fun. It has, once you dig into it more, there really are like a ton of visual metaphors in there and it's I don't know it's just so fun and it's like it really tells a story to me and so I'm excited to talk more about that cute as it can be yeah okay you ready to grave oh sure all righty all right opalite from the tortured no we're not tortured anymore we're show girls now the life of a show girl we're show girls um lyrical strength Oh, you know, 92. Okay. Fair enough.

Fair enough. Narrative and structure. Narrative. Yes. Tell us a story about what was and what is. I'll say 91. Okay. Then we have production and atmosphere.

That video is fun over the top. It is pure dance and joy. I do. When I was watching it, I said, I want to see my grandkids dancing it. Yeah, they'll be good at that dance. I think so, too. Yeah. I'm going to say, I would watch that again and again.

I'm 99. Okay. Sure. That was absolute fun. I agree. Lore and literary references. Ooh, literary references? This is like a zero, right?

Yeah, I mean, I don't want to give it a zero, but, you know. It has a lot of Taylor lore. It's self-referential. It is self-referential. Taylor, as we call it. And we do have a scattering of metaphors and one great line with dancing through the lightning strikes. And I do love the line about the Onyx night. Kind of lovely.

Yeah. Let's say 88. Okay. And then emotional impact. Oh, I was just heart struck by it. I was just overwhelmed by the love, love, love, love. Love, love. You know, okay, so I never knew anything about her private life.

I mean, just a tiny, tiny thumbnail sketch of her private life. And you've told me so much more than I ever needed to know. And you're welcome. And, you know, and nevertheless, I am happy. I'm happy that people find joy. I'm happy that people find happiness. So if she and Taylor have found happiness, good on them. I am not going to rain on that parade.

Let's give it a 90. Okay. And that gives us a 92. Okay. Good at that. Yeah. You know, as a song, I mean, that's where it hits for me. For sure.

It's not a great literary work. Like as a poem, you know, this is not Shakespeare. Right. None of us are. This isn't even Matthew Arnold. I don't even know who that is. That's okay. Exactly, right? Yeah.

Born in 1822, died in 1888. Matthew Arnold was the son of Thomas Arnold. Okay, sorry, I won't teach that lesson. Yeah, it has a purpose. It did what it's supposed to do. It is a rollicking fun song. Yes. Yes.

And like I said, I would listen to it again. You know, would I study it as a poem? Did you need days like you did with Cassandra? No. No. No, yeah, when I got Cassandra, I thought, this is going to take a while. This is, yes, I'm going to have to come back to it and study it and think about it. And, you know, I kept going through all the different.

There are so many stories in classics about Cassandra and the way they use Cassandra and how we talk about the Cassandra complex in modernity. and then there's opal light. Yeah, different. The sky is open and it's glittery and pretty and fun and could last forever. Yeah. We hope it does. We hope so.

Yeah. Okay. Anything else? No. I'm happy for you, Taylor. Yeah, me too. Honestly, that's kind of what I get out of all of this, especially the video when you really study it.

It's like, oh, yeah, she's like telling everyone that this is all perfect and great, and I'm having a great time. Yeah, okay. So make sure you're subscribed everywhere, rate review, all the things on all the things on all the places. Y'all know what to do. And you can follow us on Instagram and TikTok at Swiftian Scholar Pod. You can follow Uncle Jerry at Dr. Uncle Jerry, Dr. Uncle Jerry,

on Instagram. And you can follow me on Instagram at Angela Wyatt McDow. And we will see you next week. Thank you all. Bye.