The Swiftie and The Scholar - The Growth and Healing of Clean

Episode Date: October 9, 2025

We’re coming down from our Showgirl high, and taking it back to 1989 this week. Uncle Jerry takes us through Clean, and breaks down the metaphors and themes found in the poem, including addiction, healing, personal growth, and personal agency.He also asks Angela who this song was inspired by, and admits that he’s now wondering about that in all of these songs. :) There are links below to (most of!) the recommended literature from the episode. Some links are affiliate links, which means if you click and purchase, we will make a small commission at no cost to you.Works Cited:Metaphors We Live By –  George Lakoff and Mark JohnsonThe Great War and Modern Memory – Paul FussellNot Waving but Drowning – Stevie SmithAfterwards – Sara TeasdaleAfter Love – Sara TeasdaleFollow Us:⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

Okay. Ready? Ready. It's important to center yourself. We got it together this time. Proud. Welcome to the Swifty and the Scholar, the podcast where we examine the lyrics, lore, and literary legacy of Taylor Swift.

I'm Angela McDowell the Swifty. And I am Dr. Jerry Coates, the scholar. Yeah. Hello, Gloria. Hello, Angela. How are you doing? I am so fine today. Thank you.

How are you? I'm good. I'm tired. A little tired. Had a weekend. Did you? Did you have a party last night? Yeah.

Just a little. Yeah, I thought you might. We're just in our showgirl era. Before we start, I want to call out these mugs. Ah, yes. My friend Larissa sent us these adorable mugs. They say in my podcast era. And then the other side is personalized.

Angela and Uncle Jerry. How cute is that? So please see me gifts. We love it. Just kidding. I just wanted to shout her out because I kept saying, I'm going to record something and I kept not because life is a little crazy right now. But so sweet.

Thank you, Larissa. Okay. Yes. We're stepping out of the showgirl era. We are. Back into 2014, also known as 1989. So, 1988 is the year Taylor was born. She had said that she always wanted to name an album that year.

and she when she, this is her first pop album which is also relevant for the showgirl era because showgirl's pretty poppy um and um yeah this was her first like foray into full

fully pop leaving country behind um the the whole album is this is like when she started working with jack Antonoff our best friend Jack Antonoff um so it's all pretty like synthy and 80s but not You know, yeah.

So this is one that people have requested a lot. I think it's just a fan favorite song. So I'm really curious to see how it translates into poetry. Okay. And I'm excited to hear your thoughts. Well, thank you. Actually, I was excited to hear. I'm excited to hear the song.

Yeah. You know, I haven't heard the song. And you had mentioned that this is a fan favorite. And I mean, I was. curious about it because when you sent it, you know, Angela sends these to me and I open them up and I run them off because I like a hard

copy to write on and it was like a page and a half. Yeah. Yeah. And I literally was at my printer going, well, where's the other page? And I think I was expecting something a little closer to all too well.

Yeah. And instead, it's very short and or relatively short. And the whole second page is almost exactly the first page. It's very close. Okay. Interesting. Didn't pick up on that. So I'm going to be talking for about four minutes. Okay. There's a quick episode this week. No, I mean, it's still, it's an interesting song. As a poem, interesting. So I'll just start. Yeah, let's go for it. Okay, so start with the title.

Yeah. Title is clean. You know, one of the things to remember is clean is both an adjective and a verb. Uh-huh. Right. So it could be that something is clean or it could be that something that we're cleaning or will be cleaned. Right. Right. So it could be active on the part of the person or on another part.

And so that's, I'm looking for who's cleaning what and why and where and that kind of thing. and of course it also has a drug-related meaning, right? So if you have a problem, some kind of addiction, then you want to get clean. Okay, so we have three different ways to look at it at least. She loves ambiguity. I do too. So I like the ambiguity of the title, and so I'm looking for it in the poem itself. So it starts the drought.

and we have to stop because drought is a metaphor right as we know Taylor Swift loves metaphors half of her literary devices are metaphors right so I'm you know

I know she can't be writing about a literal drought and so I'm thinking okay so this is a metaphorical drought what is she comparing a drought to so the drought was the very worst.

Ah, uh, uh, uh. Yeah, I won't do my shoulders like that. But, I mean, you know, so it was a really bad drought and I have visions of the dust bowl. I mean, I've been to Enid, Oklahoma, which was considered like ground zero for the great dust bowl, the 1930s. And, you know, I've seen the documentaries of the dust bowl. And so the very worst. Yes.

When the flowers that, well, the flowers. Uh-oh. another metaphor. Okay, so we have two lines and two metaphors already with a possible allusion to the great drought and the dust bowl in 1930s. Good job there, Taylor. You gave us three literary devices to worry with in one of an... Like 10 words.

In 10 words. Yes. So we have a couple of metaphors. So we're contrasting the drought with the flowers. The flowers that we had grown together died. of thirst. Okay. So, you know, you got to also look at poetic elements.

It's obviously a rhymed couplet, right? It rhymes worst and thirst, right? Fourth any more. So the OR sound. So, you know, if you're rolling out to rhyme scheme, it's AABB, right? Yeah. So you got this nice interlocking rhyme scheme going. But it's not, it's not like a nursery rhyme, you know,

You know, it's a very mature rhyme scheme because Fourth and Anymore, you know, have kind of a slant rhyme with the OR sound. And the OR Sound and Anymore is kind of hidden inside the two-syllable word or three-syllable word. Right, yeah. Right. So, I mean, really nice poetic work on her part with the rhyme scheme. Back to the metaphors. So clearly, we had grown them together. So this is about another love relationship. What a surprise.

I should also say that, like, there are songs about other things, but these are just the ones that I keep picking for us. Oh, okay. This is more my fault than it is Taylor's. Okay. Yeah. Well, you know, it is funny to me, you know, several episodes, maybe in our very first or second one, you know, I mentioned to you that my particular jam is not confessional poetry. You know, I mean, confessional poetry is okay. There was a time when I loved, I read everything by Emily.

literally everything by Emily Dickinson. I still love and admire her poetry. But confessional poetry does kind of wear on me. It tends to be all about the poet. And, you know, I want a little bit of room for me to squeak in there. Yeah, yeah. And try to find some relativity between the poet and the world at large or the poet and me, the reader.

Yeah. But here we go. It's another love poem. or not love. It was months and months of back and forth. You're still all over me like a wine-stained dress. I can't wear any more. So she apparently gains weight at the end of this.

I don't think that's it. Oh, no? No. That's not why she can. I don't think so. Okay, sorry. So, yeah, she can't wear it because it's stained. Uh-huh.

Right. And, oh, no, we have a simile like a wine. stain dress. It's also a really nice imagery. Yeah. Right. When she says wine stain dress, I immediately see it. Yeah. You know, we've all spilled something. For me, it's only grape juice. You were drinking red wine in the last episode.

Was I think? Oh, I was. Caught. I know we haven't covered this yet, but I know you've read it. Small spoiler. Does wine-stained dress make you think of maroon? It sure does. Yes, it does. Yeah, as a matter of fact, you sent me maroon.

I got that. And in my notes to maroon, I wrote, you know, wine-stained dress, question mark. So, yes, I link the two together. Yeah. Okay. Just making sure. Yes. We can move along.

Okay. So, well, I like the image because it's not only very visual, but also it, you know, it's something that's ruined. Mm-hmm. Right. So if you take the simile, you realize she's comparing the perfection of a beautiful dress to the ruination of a relationship, right? So the dress is ruined. She can't wear that anymore. It's not, you can't backtrack on a relationship once it goes as bad as, um, you, you know, um, you,

The very worst. Yeah, the drought. Right. Very worst drought. The very worst drought. Yeah. So, I mean, I think it's nice. There's a lot of unity in the stanza.

Yeah. I mean, good job. Then we get to the pre-chorus. Hung my head as I lost the war. Okay. We have another metaphor. Right. So, I mean, you know, the use of war or battle is a frequent metaphor that you

used for romance or lovemaking. All you have to do, let's see, it's down here somewhere. Is this the metaphors book? Yeah, the metaphor. I think like three or four people said they bought this book. All you have to do is take out your copy, a metaphor as we live by. One person commented, and I don't remember who it was, I could find it, but they said that they bought that book on your recommendation and then stayed up super,

late reading it, like couldn't go to sleep because they were so enthralled by it. It is interesting. It's interesting how metaphors invade our speech. Nope, and that's another war metaphor. That's a war metaphor, people. I mean, you can't win that battle of not using war metaphors. I mean, it's just all shot to hell. Oh, no. No, no. Yeah, so we have a war metaphor here. And, you know, so love is a battlefield.

There is a song that comes later, actually also on Midnights, which is where Maroon is from, called The Great War. Oh, really? So that whole people, a lot of people were bringing that up after you mentioned that book and the War Medi Force. And so I think that will be a fun one to cover us as well. That's interesting, yeah. Okay, now I'm sorry my mind is going other places.

There's a really good book by Paul Fusell. titled The Great War and Modern Memory. And he, yeah, I know, there's memory. He looks at World War I and talks about how people, you know, remember it, memorialize it, how they demonstrate it afterwards in poetry and in autobiography and that kind of thing. Yeah, the irony of the Great War, and I'll be anxious to see the song, the irony of calling it the great war is you know you please name for me a really good war right right yeah a really terrific fun yeah everybody loves those wars right yeah so there is

no such thing as a great war even though because of it's you know the vastness of size the engagement of multiple countries you know people called it the great war yeah yeah that's interesting i'll be looking forward to that so yeah we have the the metaphor of the war and the guy turned black. So color imagery we know is important to Taylor Swift. You know, you have told me that and I've begun to see it more

and more. You know, that's been the interesting thing about reading, I'm on my 11th. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Reading these poems is you begin to get a sense. It's like reading anybody. It's like reading 30 poems by Wallace Stevens. You begin to get a sense of his style.

His use of imagery, his use of metaphor, his use of language. You know, she does love color imagery. So the sky turned black like a perfect storm. And, you know, now, perfect storm is an idiom, a bit of a cliche, obviously a movie title with George Clooney. Yeah. A terrific story. And can we just say what happens at the end of the movie?

Does everyone die? They die, die, die. Yes. It's not looking good for this song. Yeah, we're six lines in. And we're in a drought and a war and a storm. Yes. So I'm going to say the combinations of metaphors and simile are way past foreshadowing here.

You might say five shadowing. Yeah, this is maybe all the way up to six shadowing. Yeah. Don't call me out of my bad jokes. Do you know some of you guys have commented on that? People love that joke. Okay, good. Okay, so the chorus.

Yes. I always chuckle when I see that she has a pre-chorus and then a chorus. No, I don't. I don't. This is just what they say they are, so I put it down. The chorus, the rain came pouring down. Okay, lots of rain. When I was drowning, that's when I could finally breathe.

And by morning, gone was any trace of you. I think I'm finally clean. Okay, so again, the rain. rain is a kind of metaphor. The rain and the storm and the war. They all combine to be this torrent of difficulty where she's just like rending her soul to try to squeeze out every bit of that previous love relationship. She wants to be clean.

So, you know, what we're seeing here is the use of addiction or infatuation as a conceit because it's being extended throughout the poem. Yeah. Right. So this overarching metaphor of clean from an addictive, from some addictive behavior is extended into this conceit. Then we go to verse two. Okay.

Oh, there's nothing left to do. When the butterflies, another metaphor. Right? Yeah. But, okay, so butterflies are fragile. I mean, when you encounter a metaphor or simile, you do have to stop and ask, well, why that metaphor? You know, what exactly how many different meanings does that metaphor contain? You know, so a butterfly's wings are fragile.

Butterflies frequently don't live very long. Okay. They're extremely beautiful. Mm-hmm. Okay. Also, butterflies, like, when you're in a new relationship, like you get butterflies in your stomach. You're exactly right. You get butterflies in your stomach.

And butterflies come from, they undergo, they have this chrysalis phase, right? So they start off as something kind of fuzzy ugly. They start off as a worm and then emerge as this beautiful thing. Also, they give flight, right? So people talk about my love has wings. Okay, yeah. Right. So, I mean, I love the use of butterflies here.

You know, I think it's a beautiful, multiple-layered, ambiguous metaphor that applies in all ways to this poem. And those beautiful, fragile, temporal things turned to dust and it covered her whole room. Yeah. Yeah. So I punched a hole in the roof. Okay. So we go back to that war metaphor. You know, war implies the violence of love.

Well, sometimes violence begets violence. And so I like that image of punching, you know, because it's a kind of violent act, right? You have to fight your way out of a love experience just sometimes as you have to fight to keep a love experience. So again, fighting, punching. The roof is something that covers are over, keeps her from breaking out into the fresh air. So it's a metaphor. Okay. Yeah, it's because the roof, we're going to have to come back.

Because I'm like, okay, so she's, I'm like, now that we're digging into this, I'm like confused about the timeline of all of this. Oh, yeah. I mean, it feels like she had a love relationship and then the love relationship began slipping away. There was a terrible drought. That's when the drought and then she finally was. All of the beauty, the flowers, they all died, all of the things that bring love and make love. all died and now she wants to wash that memory away right so the rain comes and she manages to

break out of an addictive cycle trying to fight through this love relationship she says no I'm done with that and she breaks out of the roof gotcha yeah so she let the love the flood carry away all my pictures of you so my pictures could be literal okay could be literally there were in a room, but we know that the flood is a metaphor, and so the pictures could also be a metaphor. The pictures in her mind. Yeah, I was going to say the memories. Right, the memories, to wash all the memories away. So, you know, if you're counting, I'm sorry, I've lost count, how many different metaphors

we build. Yeah, it's all every word. It is. Every sentence has something metaphorical that's rolling through this long conceit. the water filled my lungs. I screamed so loud, but no one heard a thing. You know, I mean, breaking out of an addictive cycle is very difficult, and she compares it to drowning, you know, kind of metaphorical.

Actually, I thought of a poem that I just, that I ran off just because it's fun. So if you've never read Stevie Smith's Not Waving, But Drowning. Oh, okay. I think it's a great poem. It doesn't have a lot to do with this particular poem, but it did remind me because there's a guy who's drowning. And Stevie Smith, she's lots of fun. There's a really kind of mean sense of irony in the poem.

Nobody heard him, the dead man, but still he lay moaning. I was much farther out than you thought. Now the dead man's talking. I was much farther out than you thought, and not waving, but drowning. Oh, no. So like he's way out there. And he's going like this. And they're like, hi.

And everybody goes, yeah, hi. And he was not waving but drowning. Poor chap. He always loved larking. He's such a joker. And now he's dead. Oh, no. It must have been too cold for him.

His heart gave way, they said. Oh, no, no, no, no. It was too cold always. Still the dead one lay moaning. I was much too far out all my life. And not waving, but drowning. Oh. Yeah.

So it's not about his literal. drowning. It's about he's in some kind of spiral depression. Oh, no. And no one seemed to notice it. Interesting. Yeah. And so, I mean, I think that... No one heard a thing. Right. The way it relates to this particular poem, Clean, is that, you know, sometimes you have this, had this depression heavy on you and people don't see. Mm-hmm. You know, and you have to, in effect, clean yourself. Yeah. Right. So now we're back to the use of clean as a lot of.

a verb, you know, I am cleaning. So, you know, the lungs filling up and then the core, the next chorus, the rain came down, I was drowning. That's when I could finally breathe and by morning gone was any trace of you. I think I'm finally clean. It's like an addict emerging from withdrawal, right? So we get about six lines of her going through this terrible withdrawal. and then finally she emerges clean.

And that's when we go to the post course. Okay. Yeah. So I think I'm finally clean. You can do the ah, a, a, a, ah, ah. Okay. That's exactly how it goes in the song.

Is that right? No. I'll look for it. Said, I think I'm finally clean. So she's reiterating the idea. And then she goes 10 years, 10 months sober. again a metaphor she's comparing herself to an addict

who's finally broken clean and she's got her 10-month metal like you would in the AA I must admit just because you're clean doesn't mean you don't miss it that is the fundamental problem with addiction right? It's always there it's always there yeah she may have washed that man

right out of her hair but some trace of him is always in her memory. Yeah. She's 10 months older. So she talks about experience here. I won't give in. You know, she's a determined fighter. Now that I'm clean, never going to risk it.

The drought was the very worst when the flowers that we'd grown together died of thirst. So she remembers how bad it was. She's like I'm not going back there again. I'm not going back. I want to connect this to another song on this album, but from the Taylor's version. So we got 1989 Taylor's version with, I think, five vault tracks. And those five vault tracks are, I love them. I think they're so good.

I've been kind of meh on most of the vault tracks, except for all 2L 10-minute version, obviously. but the 1989 vault tracks are so good and they just gave such a more like complete picture to this album and there is a song on there called Is It Over Now that I think is my favorite one and in that one she's talking about

this same relationship and she's like was it over when you were doing this was it over when I was doing this because she's got this I think she has these 10 months where she's still like is this really over And in that song, she says 300 takeout coffees later. Oh, really? And in my head, I'm like, okay, 30 days, 10 months, 300 takeout coffees for every day.

Yeah. Yeah, that's fun. And I think that she's saying, I think it's that same period of time. She's like, oh, is it over now after 300 take out coffees later? Right. And I think is the same, like 10 months older. That's fun. And can I tell you just how much you've gotten into my head?

Because when I was reading this, I'm trying, you know, my purpose here, people, is to be the literary critic and to read this like a poem, right? And I want to be a new critic. I want to read it without biographical material clouding my mind. But I have to tell you, after reading so long London and after reading all too well, I'm sitting here going, Oh, which guy is it? I wonder which I'm serious. I have no idea, but I have a feeling I'm going to learn before the end of the set. Yeah, let me just tell you right now.

Okay, who is it? Okay, do you know pop star Harry Styles? Yes, I do. This album is all Harry Styles. Is it really? She had a thing with Harry Styles? Yeah, back when he was in One Direction. Wow.

And she was entering her pop era. Wow, okay. I love Harry Styles You just gave me a third person to worry about it No, we love him, we like him Okay, okay We're not mad at Harry Yeah, we're not, okay

We're mad at Jake Gyllenhaal See, I still kind of like Jake Gyllenhaal I will say Only as an actor I should have said that Jake Gyllenhaal actually has been like Really great publicly When people ask him about all too well

Okay, because Taylor has said I know this is not we're talking about here But Taylor has said, you know, like that song, the fans loved it so much and turned it into this whole other thing and that song now for her isn't even about that relationship anymore. It's about like what we've done

into making that such like the phenomenon that it is. Do you think he'll get invited to the wedding? No. And he has said like you know I think it's great that she has this song that her fans all love and they've made it something new for her so he has been like

fine. Okay good. I'm glad he's fine. John Mayer, on the other hand, has not been so nice. And Stiles, is he okay? Yeah, they're fine. They, like, were chatting recently at some awards show, and we were all like, Haler lives, you know. Right.

That's their couple name. Okay. Should we go back to that? Yeah, sorry. Just a little aside. It felt important to mention that. No, I'm serious. Like I said, you were in my head.

I was sitting there going, well, who is this? Is it one of the two guys I know? Is it one? It's a third guy. Another one. Okay. Well, no wonder she's so happy with Travis. I mean, it's like, he's the one who stuck.

Yeah, okay, good. All right. Well, good. So, okay, she's getting over her addiction. She doesn't want to go back. And we have a chorus, which essentially is all, there's not fresh material here. Yeah. Right.

The rain came pouring down. She was drowning. She could finally breathe, gone as any trace. I'm finally clean. Rain came pouring down. goes on and on. Yeah, again. She's finally clean.

Yeah. Okay. What does change a little bit is the outro where she says, finally clean, think I'm finally clean, ah, ah, I think I'm finally clean. I think that the change of tone, the little twist she gives us at the end, which is fun. It makes it more than just a I'm over him poem, is that it is what we call an indeterminate ending. Yeah. Is she really over her? Right, yeah.

She thinks she's over him. She thinks she's clean. And she knows, but it doesn't mean you don't miss him. Right. You don't miss it. Right. I know how bad the drought was, but. I know.

You know, if you're making an argument, you know, probably rhetorically, this is not a strong argument to make. You know, it's like a used car salesman trying to sell a car. and he says, I think this is a good car for you. You know, well, that's not as rhetorically strong as this is a good car for you. Yeah, I am clean. Yes, yes. She could have said, I am clean, but she says, I think I'm finally clean. And so the tone is hopeful but realistic.

Okay, yeah, I like that. Yeah, I like it too. I think it's nice. I liked the indeterminate ending. Yeah. My students, by the way, I hate them. I have given them poems or short stories or things like that with indeterminate endings. And they just go, well, no, I need to know.

How does it end? You know, but, you know, real- I kind of like it because, like, I get to the side. Well, and how many times do you actually reach finality in life? Yeah. At least once. Just the ones probably really. Yeah, when you die.

Yeah. But other than that, yeah, you're pretty stuck. Okay. Can I go back and talk about water as a symbol? Please. Okay, so water is an overarching symbol, you know, in this particular poem, water can be seen in every major world religion. Generally, it is used as a symbol of cleansing, right? It's also a symbol of rebirth of new life, right?

So as you are coming out of the womb, you know, in your mother's water. water. Right. You get baptized in a Christian church. You go to an ablution fountain if you're Muslim and you wash before you go in. So it's a symbol of cleansing, of being reborn, of becoming something new. You know, I did wonder if the butterfly was a kind of a foreshadowing of what might come in her life, you know, since this butterfly has turned to ashes. But, you know, flies will reemerge, right, as something new and beautiful. Yeah. That's kind of a pretty thought.

I did like, I like the water imagery. The water is an overarching symbol. And I like the themes of this poem. Okay. Okay. Give me the themes. Move right on to themes. I think one of the big themes is emotional and personal development.

Okay. Okay. You know, I think that she talks about that, how you have to struggle with your own addictive behavior and how you are ultimately responsible for trying to get through it. You know, and often I hope with the help of others, you know, but she takes a level of responsibility. I think especially in the bridge where she says 10 months older, I won't give in, right?

She's more experienced. She's developed. You know, now I'm clean. I'm never going to risk it. I remember the destructive power of that kind of relationship. You know, so the emotional and personal development theme kind of connects to a growth and, you know, nature theme. Yeah. Where, right, she's growing, you know, we move along with natural forces, right?

Storms come. We weather storms. Flowers are connected to the rain. Yeah. When she had no rain in her life, the flowers died. They died, yeah. Right. You know, we could look at rain as yet another overarching symbol.

Mm-hmm. You know, so rain, you know, often, so again, my students hate it when symbols aren't absolutely clear and perfect. Okay. When there is a multiety of meaning in a single symbol. I once was teaching a class where I was teaching Anglo-Saxon literature and there's this Anglo-Saxon poem where a poor fisherman is blown out to sea

in a storm and night falls and he has no point of reference he's lost at sea and night is around him and I ask the students what is night a symbol of and this poor guy who just always just wanted to help out raised his hands have I told you this story? No. Oh he raised and he said, darkness.

Oh, no. And as a teacher, you don't want to just say, no. Yes, and. I said, it's correct. It is literally darkness, but there is a secondary symbolic meaning. And this girl who always knew all the answers said, death. Okay, yes. Night is a symbol of death.

So death surrounds him. And he's on this vast eternal sea, this great eternal spance of sea. What could that be a symbol of? And the same guy said, it's wet. Oh, my God. And I went, yes. Bless his heart for trying. Yes.

It is wet. And the same girl said, eternity. Yes. Yes. Or that. Rain. Rain. It can be tears, right?

It can be a symbol of sadness. But the thing that confuses us a little bit is that rain can also be refreshing, right? Rain is what makes spring comes. Rain is what makes flowers grow. So in this particular poem, again, is a fairly mature poet. I think she's doing a nice job of using rain with both of those. Okay, that's interesting. Yeah, both of those meanings.

It is her tears, true, but it's also the water that brings new life. Okay. Right. So that's beautiful. That's nice, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. So there you go.

That's healing, you know, overall big arching thing, personal development, personal responsibility, emotional development. Yeah, I never picked up on the 10 months older as her talking about like, I'm wiser now. Right. Yeah. Yeah. It's a nice theme.

It's, you know, I think that we do remember things from previous love relationships or previous relationships. And we get better. I hope. I hope we learn from those mistakes. Hopefully. Or those experiences. Sometimes I guess I shouldn't call the mistakes, right?

Yeah. They're experiences. Just learning. Just learning. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Do I get to hear the song now?

Yeah, let's listen. Okay. Okay, we will be right back with thoughts. Okay. Thoughts on the original album track. You know what? I think every time I listen to one of the songs, I'm always impressed by the way she interprets her own lyrics.

Okay. Right. For example, when she gets to that line, so I punched a hole, you know, and she says the word punch. She really punches on punch. She punches it. I like the very first line, the drought was the very worst, and she goes the ah, ah. It was really painful. You know, if you go back and really think about, because I was interested in how that mixed with the lyrics.

And they get better, but those first ones are. more painful. She's like a little cracking in her voice, like a little, like a little sadness in her voice. It's like the hurt is there. And when the flowers died of thirst, her voice goes down. Like you can just see the heads of the flowers.

Yeah, they were just wilting. Just wilting. Yeah. Yeah, I really just, she constantly, you know, reminds me at how good she is at interpreting her own. lines, 10 months sober, her voice was very high and fragile. You know, it's like, okay, it's been 10 months. Because you're an addict, you're never sure what month number 11 might bring.

Yeah, but the next day. Right. And the end of the song, so tenuous, so fragile, you know, and a lot of the music drops away. Yeah. And it's just her, and then it just stops. You know, it's like, oh, you know, I've made it this far. You know, I can do this.

Is it going to last? Yeah, just tiptoeing. Yeah. And I want to know, does she, does she have backup singers or does she do her own voiceover backups? So I think it depends. This one, actually, we didn't say. This song was written and produced by her in Imogen Heap, who she has never worked with before or since. She's an artist in her own.

She's a British. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I actually have heard of her. I have actually heard of her. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, she's like cool. She's cool music, you know.

And so I think that might be her voice in the background. I'm actually not sure. Maybe we should look that up. But, yeah, the background vocal, backing vocals on this one are very, they come forward a lot. They do. Yeah. Like they came forward with the line, I screamed so loud, right? The backup singers tend, like, just like lifted her up.

And you got that scream. Yeah. It wasn't a scream, but the push of volume with but no one heard a thing, you know, it was really nice. So, and I guess the other thing is she, she, when, as she's interpreting her lyrics, she reminds me of things that I missed every now and then. You know, I didn't mention, but the bridge and the chorus go back to her habit of having a Sciura, a break in the middle of a poetic line. Oh, yeah, yeah. Right? The bridge and the chorus both have those breaks in the middle of a poetic line.

Ten months sober, pause. I must admit, just because you're clean, pause. Don't mean you miss it. 10 months older, pause, right? Yeah, yeah. So it's, you know, the Sciura creates a lot of rhythm. It makes a song, but it also creates a sense of hesitancy in a poem, right? And so you've got the invasion of these Sishurai that create a level of hesitancy in the last couple of elements of the song.

Yeah, they're in like every line of the bridge except for the last one. Yeah. But I think she kind of, well, no, I guess that she doesn't put one in there. And you see it in the chorus, too. when I was drowning, pause. You know, gone was any trace of you, pause. Yeah. So, yeah, those pauses can lend a sense of hesitancy to a poem.

So, yeah, I guess I see why this song is a fan favorite. Yeah. Yeah, I did, I didn't even mention this yet, and I don't know how. I always talk about it. This was actually my surprise song when Chase and I were at the Ares Tour. This was our surprise song. piano. Oh, really?

And everybody got so excited. It was very fun. He was, he, like, stood up. He was like, yeah, let's go. Well, I know he likes this song. Yeah. Well, last night when we were at dinner talking. Yeah.

He said, oh, I like that one. And I thought, really? Because there's not a whole lot here. I mean, it's. It's kind of a jam, though. Yeah, it's nice. It's fun. This might be one that is, like, helped along in its grade by the, by the actual song.

By the actual song. By her performance. Yeah. Right? By her interpretation of her lyrics, I think it rises up in my esteem. Yeah. Not that I am the great arbiter of all things poetic, but... But everybody does care what you think now.

And I was, and I really am going to say that I was kind of looking at a high B or something, a low A for this, you know, but I like her interpretation of it. Yeah. You want to grade it? Can I give you one more thing to think about? Please. Or do you want to end with the grade? No, no. So I always talk about other similar artists, and I don't know if I've mentioned Sarah Teesdale.

Oh, I don't think so. Yeah, Sarah Teesdale, like Edna, St. Vincent Malay, early, you know, last century poet. And I like her very much. I have her collected works around here somewhere. I'm not going to jump up and try to find it. Maybe I'll have it ready next time and say, this is Sarah Teesdale. But, yes, I like her poetry very well. I've got a little first edition of one of her early works.

But I ran off a couple of her poems that are comparative. So if you're interested in seeing other comparable poets with the same kind of topic. Okay, I love that. Yeah, look at Sarah Teesdale's poem afterwards, because it's about after a love relationship. And she uses some of the same metaphorical and images. I do not love you now, nor do you love you. Love me. Love like a splendid storm swept us and passed. Okay. Yeah.

Right. And you can go on and read the rest. The other Teesdale poem. I'll link them both. Okay. The other Teesdale poem I'd recommend is After Love, which is one of my favorites. Just so lovely. It's only 12 lines long. There is no magic anymore. We met as other people do. You work. No miracle for me, nor I for you. You are the wind and I the sea There is no splendor anymore I have grown listless as the pool

Beside the shore But though the pool is safe from storm And from the tide has found Sercise It grows more bitter Than the sea for all its peace I know It's an interesting take on the end of love

Relationships And also, what's the first line again? Something about magic? Yeah, there is no magic anymore. That's what she says not too well. That magic's not here no more. I know. Sarah Teasdale. Take a look at her.

Yeah, I'll link whatever I can below. I'm a sucker for other poets. I love that. Those are both very clean ass. Yeah, I love the other one with the afterwards where she compares it to a storm blowing over them. Yeah. Yeah. Fun. Okay. Okay, let's grade her. Grate it up. All right. So clean.

Um, lyrical strength. Uh, you know, I did love the use of Sciaro that she showed me. She said, look at this. Um, yeah, um, in the last couple of stanzas. And so I'm going to say 92. Okay. Okay. Um, narrative and structure.

Um, you know, the narration, I did like the middle section where she's going through withdrawal. You know, I think those six lines were very strong, and I think that they help help the two parts of the narrative kind of adhere to one another. Okay. I'll say 94. Okay. Production and atmosphere. Oh, yeah, you know, I really liked the song, just as a song itself. So I'm going on up to 96.

Oh, my goodness. I know. We keep climbing. lore and literary references You know lots of metaphors I mean I had to laugh You know the second word is a metaphor And then the fourth word

And then the sixth word I know I just went oh Taylor You know it's not a new conceit It's not a new conceit It's not a new set of metaphors That you know Rain is cleansing Or storms are scary or droughts

Or the end of love Or war You know that love is content contentious and engages in warfare. Yeah. But she puts them together in a nice way, you know, so 93. Okay. And emotional impact.

Oh, you know, my biggest addiction is to chocolate. Real. Yeah. But I have had family members who have been addicted to alcohol and drugs And, you know, when I was reading through it, I made that link to other levels of addiction. And it's a hard and serious thing. And it's, it, I appreciated the theme of personal development, personal agency. Yeah.

all of that. So I'm going to say 95. Okay. And that gives us a 94. Solid. Yeah. It's better than I thought it was when the first three or four times I read it actually. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, I got worried about it too whenever I, because I was like,

I love this song, and then I wrote it down the lyrics and I was like, there's not a lot for us to talk about here. But we did it? We got it. We were professionals. It was so funny. I literally looked to see if I missed a page. Yeah, but we did it. We did it. She sounds a good grade. That's all the good.

Yeah, she did a nice job. That's your first taste of 1989. Oh, good. Okay. Yeah, not bad. All right. That's it. You got anything else?

No, I'm clean. Okay. Perfect. Okay. Then we will be back next week. I might have given a small Easter egg of what the next episode will be. And then after that, I think we'll get into at least one song from showgirl

and then we'll continue going back in time. Do I get to pick it this time? If you want it. Nah, I'm going to let you do that. Okay, stay tuned for that, I guess. We'll see which one we're coming first. And make sure you're following us and

subscribed everywhere. YouTube, Spotify, Apple, podcasts, Instagram and TikTok at Swiftie and ScholarPod. You can follow me at Angelo Wyatt McDow on Instagram, and you can find Uncle Jerry here reading books about metaphors. Bye! I'm sorry.

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