The Swiftie and The Scholar - The Rhythmic Power of Champagne Problems

Episode Date: September 18, 2025

Dom Perignon, did you bring it? Today we’re toasting to Champagne Problems from Taylor Swift’s 2020 album, evermore. Uncle Jerry discusses the different meter used throughout the lyrics, and also wonders if there’s a deeper meaning with society’s expectations and the narrator’s autonomy throughout the story.Angela brings up the Swiftie discussion about which word they’ll never say again, and they also tell the story of Uncle Jerry officiating Angela’s wedding.Works Cited:Night Train – Jimmy ForrestTake the A Train – Duke EllingtonIn Medias ResHeart of Glass – BlondieIambic PentameterTrocheeDactylAnapest Disnarration and the Unmentioned in Fact and Fiction – Marina Lambrou – Affiliate LinkSociological CriticismFollow Us:⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠Angela’s Instagram⁠

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any place. That is music for your ears. No, you'll be more vets. Your business will be a super-exiton with Shopify. Empea. 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.

Hello. Hi, Angela. How you doing? I'm so excited about this one. Okay, good. Before we get into that, I did say on the last episode, we should tell that story. Yeah, tell that story. Okay, so this...

Because it has to do with what I'm doing. Yes. And it's a great story. Yes. So this podcast is not... not the first, like, weird side quest I've sent you on in recent years. That is true. So I got married about a year and a little over a year ago.

And I asked you to officiate our wedding. You did. Yes, you did. What was that like? That was lots and lots of fun. Yes, I was, I mean, I was intimidated. Yeah, it's scary. It is scary.

And then you have to go downtown and register as an officiant. Yeah, so I got married in New York City. That's right. So you had to go to your cool one-day. One-day license to be an officiant in New York, and I had all the paperwork. I had to fill out and all that kind of thing. Yep. Yes.

It was fun, though. Yeah, it was great. It was terrifying, but it was fun. It was terrifying for me just to, like, get married in New York City. It was great. And I made the classic blunder. because immediately prior to the start of the event, I turned to my daughter, your cousin, Kathleen,

and I said, watch me call Chase Bryce. And when we started off, I called him Bryce. Yeah, that's so funny. Yeah, I didn't know. I mean, I feel like that. That's happened at like probably four weddings have been too. So I think it's always the groom's name. Well, I don't know.

You know, when my other niece got, married the, uh, the officiant completely missed her name like, because he didn't know her at all. Oh, yeah. And that's why I wanted you to do it because you knew us. That's right. I didn't want like a stranger. Yeah, you and Bryce are pretty close to me. Um, yeah, so I'll put up some pictures on the screen of that. Okay. That'll be fun. Yeah. Married in a little, little gazebo, I guess it was in New York City in Central Park. In Central Park. It was beautiful. What a choice. I actually have to say, I thought that it was a little wacky Central Park and everything. I mean, but, and then you get there and you realize, wow, this is just beautiful.

Yeah, that's fun. It was beautiful. And the song we're talking about today, a wedding doesn't happen. No. Yeah. Not enough. No. Okay, let's get into it.

Champagne problems. Champagne Problems. So this is another one from Evermore. The previous song we covered from Evermore was Cowboy Like Me. and that one got like a bee. The first one to get a B, I think. So I'm interested to hear how this one does. You know, I like this one very much.

And I'm going to say I'm going to have to, I'm looking forward to the opportunity to read through her songs from both folklore and Evermore. Because I like the one from folklore. Yes. And I like this one very much. Good. Okay. Yeah, I had to read and reread this.

number of times. Thank you very much. Yeah, you're up, up late last night doing that. I was. But I get, I mean, I don't know, I get kind of fixated on these things. Yeah, as I knew you would. Okay, so this one is another one produced by Taylor and Aaron Dessner,

but this one is written by Taylor and William Bowery. So I think we actually have talked about William Bowery before. Is he one of the Bowery boys? No, I don't know what that is. Okay. William Bowery is a pseudonym for Joe Alwyn, Taylor's boyfriend at the time. And they would sometimes sit down at the piano and write sad songs together. So in the previous song we did, which I can't remember which one it was now,

he was just a producer credit, and they had actually changed his name to Joe Alwyn. But for some reason, on this one, he's still credited as William Bowery. Okay. Yeah. So yeah, let's just get into it. Evermore, Second Pandemic album, Sister Album of Folklore. I'm beginning to learn these things. Yes.

That's kind of crazy. Yeah. Something I would not have thought a couple of months ago. Yeah. Here we are. Here you are. On your way. Yeah, let's go for it.

Okay, verse one. First line, you booked the night train for a reason. Mm-hmm. Okay. So immediately you see the word night. and that would be foreshadowing. Anytime you see night or day or water or large archetypal images. Like rain or sun or.

Right. You have to stop and you have to ask the why question. So why night, you know, night is generally foreshadowing of something ominous, death, loss, that kind of thing. Okay. And so immediately I'm looking for some level of loss. And of course, that's what happens in champagne dreams. I was also interested in the phrase, night train. Okay.

Mostly because it's a song by Jimmy Forrest. Okay. I don't know who that is. Okay, he's a songwriter. It is a song by Jimmy Forrest who, and he wrote in the 30s and 40s, I think. But he wrote for Duke Ellington. Duke Ellington played Night Train. A lot of people recorded the song.

and I really like it. So now I'm going to tell my New York story. Okay. So when we were there for Angela's wedding, my wife and I did take a couple of tours and we went around. One of the things I wanted to do is I wanted to ride the subway, and in particular we took the A train. And Duke Ellington's theme song is Take the A Train.

Okay. And so I pulled out my phone, pulled up YouTube, and I played Take the A Train while we were getting. on VA train. Did that feel magical? It did for me. There were a number of New Yorkers looking at me like I was some kind of an idiot.

I mean that people do much weirder things on the subway. Probably. But anyway, yes, Night Train, a possible reference to a song that is made famous by Duke Ellington. I thought it was kind of fun. So he booked the Night Train for a reason.

And so immediately you know you are in the middle of the story. Oh, again. Again, so this is that device called in Medias Race. And why do we begin in Medias Race? It's just to create a little bit of drama

and tension for that little bit of piece of the story. Because the reader's going to ask, well, what's the reason? Why is he on the train? Where is he going? Where is he coming from? Why is he taking the night train? Why does this already seem somber in the very first line?

So yeah, we begin in the middle of the story. And so what she's creating here is another fictional universe. Right. So I'm looking for that. I want to see how does she flesh out that fictional universe? How does she populate with characters? So you could sit here in this hurt, bustling crowds or silent sleepers. You're not sure which is worse.

So he's surrounded either by crowds or quiet people, you know, which is worse to be filled with the cacophony of the place or to be filled with your own thoughts. Yeah, like loneliness. Right. And then one of the things that I noticed immediately also about the first verse, and now it's time to put on your real poet's pants. Okay. Is that this is rhythmical. Okay.

Okay. So we talked about rhythm before. We talked about the use of Shaisura, the break in the middle of a, of a poetic line that creates an automatic rhythm. But this goes beyond that. Okay. Okay. One of the things that make Shakespeare beautiful.

Uh-oh. Not the comparison to Shakespeare. It's true. Is his use of iambic pentameter? Yes. Okay, so for those of you who do not know, iambic pentameter is ten syllables in a line, and it accents all of the even-numbered syllables.

Okay. So if I were to draw that up. Oh, we've got props today. And I am. And I am is an unstressed, stressed syllable. Okay. Okay. So when you have five of these, that's Iambic pentameter.

Okay. Okay. So I haven't seen a lot of rhythmic patterns. are actually four primary rhythmic patterns. The troki is a stressed, unstressed. A dactal is a stressed, unstressed, undress. Okay. Should I draw those on my pad?

If you want. A trokey is a stressed unstressed, stressed, stressed, stressed, stressed. Okay, this is opposite. A dactal is a stressed, unstressed, unstressed. Okay. And an antipest is an unstressed, unstressed, stressed. Okay. Okay.

So the big question is, why? Why do poets use these techniques when they write poetry? Well, it's because they replicate an element of the poem itself. So, for example, Afralortensen's Charge of the Light Brigade is written in dactyls. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, half a league, half a league, half a league onward, all in the Valley of Death, Road, the 600. Okay. So why does he do that?

because dactyl sound like horses running. Interesting. Bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum, bum. It's a gallop. Right, it's a gallop. And it's a poem about horses running. In this poem, what you see is you booked the night train for a reason. You see how she's accenting every other syllable.

So you could sit there in this heart, right? Bustling crowds or silent sleepers, you're not sure, which is worse. Yeah, that's nice. Okay, so it's very, it's rhythmical along an iambic meter. Okay. And like good poets, she varies the meter. So what you don't want to do is you don't want to have meter that's so consistent that it sounds like, like it's goofy.

Yeah, it's just like droning on and on and on and on. Right, right. One of the reasons why Henry Watthwif Wongfellow, lovely American poet, has kind of fallen out of favor a little bit, is because a lot of his bones do that. Oh, okay. He's read a very famous poem, Excelsior. The shades of night were falling fast as through an alpine village past a youth who wore in its note. Doesn't sound as fun. You don't want to do that.

Or Hiawatha, by the shores of Gitchie Gumi, by the big sea shining waters. Stoke the wigwama of Nekoma's daughter of the moon. No, no, too much, right? You want to vary it a little bit. And so she varies the rhythmic power of the stanza by starting her. ending sometimes with a stress syllable. Okay, cool. It says very nice stuff. Yeah. Another element of this first stanza is the use of alliteration. You see the sit there in this. You see there repeated s's and then bustling crowds, silent sleepers. Yeah, lots of s's.

Lots of ses, especially because it ends with silent sleepers. You know, why do you want to use alliteration? It's because the sound of the letter should replicate what's being described. And you're describing silent sleepers and S is a quiet sound. Okay. Okay. So the alliteration isn't there just for, you know, show. It's there to replicate the tone of the poem. Okay.

End of the first first. Yes. Chorus. Chorus. Because I dropped your hand while dancing. Okay, so this confused me. I mean, I literally had to read it through a number of times. When you see the word dropped, you think about the power of verbs.

So something, again, drops. That could be a foreshadowing element. Okay, yeah. Again, nothing good is going to come out of this story. Yeah. Left you out there standing, crestfallen on the landing. Left you out there standing, crestfallen on the landing. Yeah, it's nice.

It's nice, right? So it's rhythmical and it rhymes, dancing, standing, landing. And then we just go to our problems. And then we have problems. Champagne problems. Angela, what does champagne problems mean to you? I think it's like kind of like first world problems. Like these aren't real problems.

They're just, you know, problems that a fancy person has. We're like, it's almost, I mean, I think we've kind of done that a little bit in this podcast where we've talked about like, oh, poor her and all her money, you know. Like, that's like she has a lot of champagne problems. Just can't seem to stick with the right guy. Oh, no. Have to hug her gold. Yes. Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, that's a champagne problem. What's it to you? It's the same? Yeah, it's a kind of idiom. And it's used elsewhere. So champagne problem is that problem, which shouldn't be a problem except to the very rich or favored. Mm-hmm. Yeah.

So what confused me about it is he's on the nitrain, but then you go to the chorus and she's dropping his hand while they're dancing. And so what you see is you see that the narrative is divided into sections, and the first part of the narrative doesn't come first. Yeah. Right. So it's a Quentin Tarantino movie. Okay.

Yeah, she's telling the story out of order. That's right. Okay. So that's really fun. I mean, I love that. She says, left you there out there standing crestfallen on the landing, champagne problems. So your mom's ring in your pocket. So clearly he was intending to propose to her. My picture in your wallet, he is devoted to her. Your heart was glass. Okay. What song is that? Blondie. That is correct. Blondie's name is? Oh my gosh

Hold on I don't know why isn't coming to me You've mentioned her before even I do I love But why isn't her name I know her name Deborah Harry

I love Deborah Harry I'm sorry for being such a No that's okay Hard at last Such a disappointment yes Debra Harry Chris Stein song From the late 80s

And I think 89 But I'm not sure That's a popular number In Taylor's world Oh is it which has the whole album called 1989. Paralleline's album. I love that music.

Do you know the song? Yeah, I used to play it a lot on Guitar Hero. Exactly right. I had love, and it was a guess. Soon turned out, had a heart of glass. So it's a song about Lost Love. And I really did wonder when she used the phrase, Art of Glass.

I mean, obviously, hard of glass means that is... He's fragile. He's fragile. But I wondered, are you referencing the Deborah Harry song? Probably.

I don't know. She's good at old music like that. Sorry, I didn't mean to say old. The rest of the day's episode will be carried out entirely by... I apologize. No, that's okay. It's an old song.

And then she says, I dropped it. Yes. Which that is such a fun. I broke your heart. A way to say I broke your heart. It's great. Yeah.

Yeah. I loved the way that, I don't know, that the, again, the rhythmic element of the line leads up to that. I dropped it. And there's a comma, so you get a Sciura, so you get a little pause. Yeah, your heart was glass. Oops. I dropped it. Verse two.

Yes. Okay. You told your family for a reason. And I was curious about that. What's the reason? Yeah, I don't know. This verse confuses me. Is it like you told your family you were going to propose to me tonight?

Like you, the next line she says, you couldn't keep it in. And like you, for the reason was that you're so, you're so into this, you're so obsessed. Like you can't, you're so excited about it. You can't, you can't not tell your parents. Right. It's not a, you can't keep it a secret. Yeah, the reason, it's the same reason why he carries her picture. in his wallet.

Yeah. I mean, I think it, it confused me. And because, again, we're in our Quentin Tarantino moments where we're shifting times again, you know, so there's that, there's that time window where he's on the train, there's a time window where he proposed, and now we're in a different time window where he had previously talked with his family. Yeah, before all of that, yeah. Right.

So this is time window three. You couldn't keep it in. your sister splashed out the bottle. Now no one's celebrating. Okay, so she pops the cork. She's already pouring the champagne, but it was premature. And, okay, should we talk sexual imagery?

Go for it. I don't know that we should. Popping the cork prematurely. Okay, we got it. Should I just leave it there? Yeah, we got it. Okay. Work that out by yourselves.

If you need help, put it in your response. Yeah, in your comments down below. And now, no one's celebrating. Okay, so one of the questions that you really should ask about this part of the song is, how does she know no one celebrating? Right. So essentially as a narrator, she is looking into spaces where she should not be able to. see interesting yeah it is interesting I never thought about that okay and it's always

interesting to me like he told your family your sister so the sister bought what we I think later learned maybe is Don Perignon a very fancy bottle of champagne very expensive bottle yes so his sister I think it speaks to that the people in their lives thought this was a really healthy relationship and they were definitely going to get married. Like she was going to say yes. Right. They had bought into it.

Mm-hmm. Yep, but now no one is open. And apparently, it sounds like into the plural because it's he and his sister and his family. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So, yeah, Dom Pernion, you bought it. Okay, so what else did he buy? What else did he bought into their relationship?

Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Their relationship. So, you know, this is Lexcal ambiguity. Mm-hmm. She loves this. stuff. She loves to choose words with multiple meanings. So this phrase has a multiple meaning. You bought it. You bought the love story just like you bought the wine. Interesting. Yeah. No crowd of friends applauded. Your hometown skeptics called it champagne problems.

I love this phrase. It's called negation in rhetorical analysis when you say something that is not. Okay. Okay. No crowd of friends applauded. Uh-huh. Right. Normally you would say the crowd of friends applauded or there was no one there. Yeah.

Instead, no one, no crowd applauded. They gathered, they're on the precipice of the moment. Yeah. And then nothing. Yeah, there's nothing. I will say if I have a quibble. Yes. Speechless and reaches.

Yeah. This is a tough rhyme. That's a good. Yeah, that one makes me back off just a little bit. Fair. Yeah, but she says you had a speech. You're speechless. Which is, of course, irony, right?

To say one thing and be another, you know. He had a speech already, and now he is both, again, lexically ambiguous, speechless, like he can't talk, but also he doesn't have a speech because there is no wedding. There is no proposal, but no announcement. There's nothing else. Right, there's not. Dead here. So the word speechless has to me.

Yeah. Kind of fun stuff. And then we go to the bridge. Okay, wait, before, so you had a speech, you're speechless, love slipped beyond your reaches, and I couldn't give a reason. I couldn't give a reason. That line is, that feels important. Like, I don't know why I'm saying, though.

No, I agree because of the for a reason previously. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what the reason is. And maybe... I don't know that we're ever going to know. Yeah, I don't know. More ambiguity. More ambiguity. It's the window.

It is the window for the audience to participate in this world. Yeah. Okay. You haven't gone on to tell me that this is a particular level. relationship she had. Is this truly a fictional creation? I think so. Yeah. It felt like it to me. I think this is one of the folk tales. It feels like she's creating a fictional world. She is populating it with a whole number of people. You know, you've got the two lovers, the sister, the family members, the crowd of others, people on a train. The hometown skeptics. Right. So

it's people with all kinds of folks. Yeah. Which to me is fascinating. I mean, essentially she's, you know, packing this narrative with, you know, all kinds of settings and all kinds of people. Okay, the bridge. Yes. It's a good one. It's a good one. Your Midas touch, allusion to Midas.

We talked a little about King Midas before. There are a number of different stories about Midas, you know, that he receives a golden touch and his food turns to gold so we can't. or he hugs his daughter and she turns to gold and he can't have the one thing he loves the most. On the Chevy door, and I'm thinking, no, wait a minute, a Chevy door, November flush your flannel cure. And then she says, this door was once a madhouse, I made a joke. Well, it's made for me. So she has shifted her narrative time frame again. Now we're back even further in time.

We're back in their college days, perhaps when they first met. And it's November and it's cold and she complains about it. And he suggests flannel underwear. I don't think that's what she. I think he gives her a flannel jacket. Jacket. I think he puts a jacket around her shoulders or something. I'm glad that you can.

Poppercourt. Yeah, the, dorm was a madhouse so they're living in the dorm and you know well he's a little crazy too oh they're just a couple of cute kids in love right how evergreen our group of friends so evergreen young in their life you know early in their experiences they're in college right don't know anything they don't know anything yeah it's kind of a It's a lovely phrase, actually, to describe them. And you think of evergreen trees, always young, always youthful.

Yeah, so also could that be like she's thinking, when you're in college and you're, you know, you're living so close to all of your friends and you see your friends all of the time and you're like, you know, we're going to graduate and we're going to all still live close to each other and we're going to be able to see each other all the time and life is just going to be like this, you know, college experience. And so it's almost evergreen in like a perpetual. Yeah, we're going to be like this forever when we know that's not the case. I don't work out for you.

Not great. Yeah? Yeah. Now I just stay at home all the time without seeing friends. That's what Facebook used to be for. Yes. I'm far too hip to use Facebook. For sure.

For sure. Yeah, I know. Yeah. I'm interested about this next line to hear your thoughts. It is a great line. Don't think we'll say that word again. Okay, so. This is like a great debate.

Okay, so is she saying, I'm not going to say we're evergreen again or I'm not going to say we're friends again? Yeah, I don't know. Is that the debate? The debate is which word in these, you know, the kind of line before it is the word that we're never going to say again. I have come to the conclusion that I think it's our. Ah. There is no more us. There is no more we.

There's no more. We don't have anything anymore. Yeah, the problem with it is it's what we call in the world of grammatic study, a general reference pronoun. We don't know what previous antecedent the word that refers to. Right? We just don't know. So it could be Evergreen, it could be our, it could be group, it could be friends.

It could be any of those. Yeah. And again, she's leaving that window open for us to play. And I'm sure there's endless talk, you know, I'm sure you've heard me say a million times I don't do any research into any swiftly literature when I read through these things. So I am sure there's endless talk. Yeah, it's a good debate. And obviously none of us know, but, yeah. Well, and I think that's what's fun about it.

Yeah. You know, that's why I read some poets because guys like E. Cummings use ambiguity all the time. And, you know, what's the right way to interpret it? Well, there is no right way. It often applies differently in different situations. Yeah, and it can mean a different thing to you when you read it at 20 as it does it, then it does at 40, then it does at 60. Exactly.

Yeah. And that's what fun. Yeah. It keeps it timeless. Yeah. Okay, well, I'm glad that's a controversy because I wrote the phrase, which word? Yeah. Yeah, it took me a while to understand, you know, when this first came out, I'm like, wait, what is she saying?

Don't think we'll say that word again. And then as I started digging in, I'm like, wait, what does she mean? And then people started talking about it. And yeah, that's always fun to have those little moments where nobody can agree on anything. And nobody knows for sure. Well, that's what keeps people talk. Yes. Oh, let's see.

And soon they'll have the nerve to deck the halls, allusion to the famous song. If you're going to pick a Christmas song, again, you have the passage of time from November to Christmas. So she's playing with chronology. that we once walk through, one for the money, two for the show. Oh, she loves those cliched phrases. I was, never was ready. So I watch you go.

Yeah. Yeah. So she never uses a cliche without turning it around in some way. She's using irony as well. The end product of the phrase, one for the money, two for the show, three to get ready and four to go, should mean she does go,

but here. I never was ready. So I watch you go. Right. Yeah. Right. And I wonder why. But we can talk about that.

Okay. Sometimes you just don't know the answer. Until someone's on their knees and asks you. Okay. I have thoughts on this line too. Tell me. So the, this like, it's not me. It's knees.

someone's on their knees and asks you. But when you propose to someone, you're on one knee. When you're begging for something, you're on two knees. And so, is he begging her? Yeah, I guess. Yeah. And you never know the answer until someone's just begging you. And then all of a sudden it's like, no, I can't do this.

Right. Yeah, that's. Again, she's on the precipice and she just backs off. Yeah. I don't think so. So she didn't even know if a proposal came that she was going to say no until it happened. Until it happens, yeah. And then he begs and now he's on the night train.

Yeah. Right. She would have made such a lovely bride. And this is in quotes, what a shame she's, what? Fucked in the head. They said. So now you have, you know, again, this crowd of observers, people around who populate this narrative world. Mm-hmm. The family, the friends.

The family, the friends. So this ties back into up top of the bridge where this storm was once a mad house. I made a joke, well, it's made for me. Right. So she's saying, I'm crazy. I have a mad mind. And now the other people are saying. She really is.

Yeah. Yeah, she really is crazy. Yeah. But you'll find the real thing instead. She'll patch up your tapestry. that I shred. Okay, metaphor, tapestry, shredding tapestry.

You know, by now, she's famous for a metaphor, and I'm ready to start making a list. Okay. Because it does seem worthy of study. The other thing that really struck me was the use of the phrase, you know, you'll find the real thing,

remember in the Blondie song, had a heart of glass, seemed like the real thing. Okay. Yeah, so I'll, I wonder if she's echoing blind. Yeah, probably so. I don't know.

And then last day, we have the course. Yes. And hold your hand while dancing. Well, at the beginning, she had dropped his hand. Oh, and so she, yeah, so this one is pulling in the real thing. The real love, the one, will hold your hand while dancing. The real love. Yeah. Yeah.

Never leave you standing, crestfallen on the landing with champagne problems. Your mother's ringing in your pocket. her picture in your wallet her picture not mine you won't remember all my champagne problems you will have forgotten me by then yeah you'll have found your real love congratulations buddy yeah okay so so one of the things I went back and and tried to reestablish the chronology of the narrative okay so you know the first section verse one is actually after the proposal the second section the chorus are events at the proposal.

The third section are events prior to the proposal. That would be verse two, where he tells the family. And then the fourth section would be the college days in the bridge when she's remembering, re-describing how they interacted as, you know, back in that time. and the fifth phrase would be that projection in time when he has a new love and so you know you can rearrange those in a chronological manner manner but but she's breaking it up this way because she wants you to reconstruct the story in a non chronological way You know, I will also recommend, I'll recommend some reading for those of you who are interested. You might take a look at the term disneration. That's when you don't always tell all the facts of a story.

You know, why did she refuse him? We're not sure. And maybe she doesn't know. So there's a great book Dysnarration and the unmentioned In fact and fiction And it's by Marina Lambern

And I actually have a copy And I lent it to a colleague of mine And so I don't have a copy to show you But I mean it's a fairly recent book published about I don't know Eight years ago or something Oh wow okay And it's really nice on the look at the stories

You don't tell Right so the story behind the story that you know should be part of the narrative, but that's not quite there. Another thing that I found interesting was I wanted to do some socio-linguistic criticism of this particular poem. Oh, okay. And I'm telling you, it kept me up late last night because, you know, sociological criticism is looking at how society participates in the creation of text. Okay. And clearly there are social pressures that are at work here.

Okay, yeah. We have the social pressure of the family's expectations. You have the social pressure of how they interacted as college students with the group of friends. You have the social situation where one for the money, two for the show. Is she ready to say yes? and then finally that moment when she just can't do it. And then you have society leaping in again saying she would have made such a lovely bride and then evaluating her as crazy for saying no.

Right. Right. So really society plays an interesting character. Sure does. Yeah, that's fun. In the structure of the narrative. Yeah. And I think it's worthy of taking another look at it.

Interesting, yeah. Yeah, to see how social pressures work. Well, and, you know, maybe there's, the social pressure to get married too. So like, you know, he's saying it's, you know, we've been together since college. We don't know when this is taking place, but this is the logical next step because that's what you're supposed to do. Right.

That's what you have to do. And she's like. And you've got a, you know, you've got a ring and, you know, it's his mother's ring. Yeah. He's a picture. So his mom's like, you need to marry her. Have this. And, you know, the sister's ready with the champagne.

and yeah, society plays a huge role in the nature of home. That's interesting. Yeah, and so I think I'd like to take another look and then ask at what level does she deserve to participate in her own autonomy, right? She's a human being. You should be able to say yes or no. You should be able to say yes or no without any pejorative effects. Without people calling you crazy.

Without them calling you crazy. But we know that doesn't happen. We know society is always around us. You know, whether they're around us in the form of silent sleepers or bustling crowds. Interesting. Right. Again, society envelopes us and forces our decisions. She puts that right in the beginning.

She puts society right in there. She does. She puts that the crowd or the sleepers around us always. Interesting. Yeah, and I wonder if that's why she said no, you know, because she is exhibiting her own autonomy. Doesn't she have the right to choose? Yeah, yeah. And I think that maybe that's a theme of the poem.

Yeah. Is the right to choose. Interesting. And now I can't wait to hear the song. You just took this so much deeper. I have so much to think about now. There you know. What did you call that?

Sociological, what do you think? Yeah, sociological criticism. Criticism. Criticism. Yeah, so you look and see how society engages in the work of literature. Okay. Fun. Okay.

Well, that kind of ties into, so what we're going to listen to, we're going to listen to the album version with the lyric video, and then we're going to watch the Aeros Tour performance. Oh, boy. From the Ares Tour movie, which you now know exists. I now know it is a movie. I'm sure I'll never learn that I'll live that now. I mean, I think it's okay.

You don't know. It's a movie. Okay. But she talks in, which we'll listen to, but she talks about knowing that this song would be fun to scream, sing with a crowd around her. Oh, okay. So that kind of ties into all of that. Yeah. Okay.

Let's listen and then we'll look back with thoughts. Okay, we're back. Give me your thoughts. Well, it's always interesting to hear the song after I've looked and looked and looked at it. And sometimes I think, well, I miss that. or I do I guess I love that she inserts a break in the line between because I dropped your hand while dancing you know she she admit she was the one who backs away from the relationship you know I love the the phrase hometown skeptics

you know the know the no-it-holes the who said oh I always knew it wouldn't work out and she makes a little face when she sings that line. Yeah, she does, yeah. And then she pops her eyes during the flashback, which I really like. I like the college flashback. I think that's a fun way to break up the chronology of the narrative. Yeah, and just go all the way back of the early relationship.

Yeah, and it gives a little extra context, I guess. And again, part of the narrative, right, this narrative world that she's building that's full of people, people and places, you know, it's got multiple places. It's got her college campus. It's got wherever they were out for the proposal. It's got the train. It's got home, the hometown.

You know, it's a complete world she builds. And so I love that portion of that world that is the college campus. And she says, you know, the dorm was once a madhouse. And she says, well, it was made for me. And in the ERIS tour, she pops her up. Just a little crazy eyes. Oh, crazy eyes. You know, which in any other contexts would be cute and flirtatious,

but in this context, you know, we're back to those naysayers. She said, well, she's just messed up. Yeah. Yeah, so nice. I love the performance. And I love the way she accentuates the elements of song. So. It's fun.

Yeah. I like the piano songs like that, the more piano-forward ones. And, you know, the other thing that did strike me. too was the chorus that has the very strong sense of rhythm that has the your mother's ring in your pocket

bump up bumpa bumpa bumpa it sounds more rote it sounds more lockstep like this is what you're supposed to do oh interesting like she's supposed to walk down this road right that they're literally walking down the aisle right just like well you can't turn right or left

it's bum bum bum bum bum bum bum bum Bump, bump, bump, bump, bump. Interesting, yeah. Right, but then when she turns away, that scantion breaks up. Yeah, it kind of changes. Yeah, and again, I think one of the themes might be, doesn't she have her autonomy? Yeah, I think you're right.

Yeah, in this world that we build for ourselves. Can't we always say no or yes or maybe or give me another minute? Yeah, yeah. Yeah, so lots of fun. Okay. Yes. Let's grader. All right. Okay. So, for the grades, five criteria.

The first is lyrical strength. The first one I felt the power of the rhythm. I really liked the use of the rhythm in the forest. I thought it was purposeful. So, 97. Oh, my goodness. She's doing good today. Okay.

narrative and structure. Oh, this is interesting. Absolutely loved the non-chronological narrative. I'm a huge Tarantino fan. Which is a direct line to being a Swifty, right? Absolutely. At least Swift Curious. Swift.

Yes. Yeah, I do think that that was great. And like I say, I love the flashback all the way back to the college years, all the way back to the beginning of the relationship. and then all the way forward to the moment of the proposal, even to the point of following him home on the train. So I'm going to say 98. Oh, my goodness. Okay.

Production and atmosphere. Oh, fun song. Gosh, so I thought, again, the rhythmic elements worked well with a lockstep element. I sing them. I love the way she pops her eyes and in the air is to. were a bit 96. Oh my goodness. I know it's going to be our highest ever.

Okay, lore and literary references. I do wonder if she is referencing Heart of Glass by Debra Harry. It does feel kind of difficult to say your heart was glass and not be referencing. Well, yeah. And then to follow that up with the real thing. You know, love was a real thing, thought it was a real thing. So, yeah, I like that. I wonder if she knows Duke Gallington and Night Tree.

train, but the echoes of it were fun for me to think about. So, 95. Oh, my goodness. And emotional impact. Okay, so did it impact me emotionally? Me personally, not really a whole lot. Yeah, I mean, this isn't like a situation that many of us have been in. I mean, I'm sure plenty of people have, but not in this room, I guess.

But yeah. You know, I will say it reminded me of other, there are a lot of writers who will construct, you know, fictional towns like Winesburg, Ohio, Sherwood Anderson, or Edgar Lee Masters wrote a whole series of tombstone sayings. But I guess in that train, I really liked it. I loved that element of it. Yeah, creating the whole world. the world of it.

Yeah. But so, did it affect me emotionally? You know, I mean, it was fine. 92. Okay. That gives us a 96. It's pretty good. I'm just handing out A's.

Yeah, you really are. Such a generous grader. Someone called me a hard grader. What up? Yeah. Yeah, somebody did it in the comments. They're like, he's tough. I know.

Well, I mean, come on, figure it out. I mean, she is a, she's a billion-dollar recording artist who has really talented people around them, and they work really hard on these songs. They're going to be good. Yeah, yeah. So I guess just how good is the question. Yeah, yeah. Okay, super fun.

I liked this one. I did too. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, I'll make sure and try to send you the next one's, you know, at a gas station, when you're at a gas station again. I can pull off and read it. Thank you. Yeah.

Okay, that is all for us today. So make sure you're following on YouTube, subscribed on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, Spotify. Please keep the comments coming. I'm loving reading them. You can follow us to make sure you know when the next episodes are coming out on TikTok and Instagram at Swiftie and ScholarPod. I'm at Angela Wyatt on Instagram. And Uncle Jerry is right here in this house. I am here in the study.

And we will see you next week. Thank you. Bye. Bye.