1.9 What Taylor Swift and Robert Browning Have in Common

The Community Library

Welcome back to The Community Library! I’m very excited to bring you this week’s episode, which is all about pop/country icon Taylor Swift and mid-19th-century poet Robert Browning. In this episode I discuss the parallels between Browning’s 1842 poem My Last Duchess and Swift’s 2014 hit Blank Space. I had lots of fun creating this episode, and I hope you enjoy!

Our next discussion pick is The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint-Exupéry!

• Here are links to free audiobook versions:
• The Katherine Woods translation
• The Richard Howard translation

• Some links to things I talked about in the episode:
• My Last Duchess by Robert Browning
• Blank Space by Taylor Swift
• Taylor Swift talking about how and why she wrote Blank Space
• Robert Browning’s Blank Space – British Literature 1700-1900, A Course Blog
• “My Last Duchess” and “Blank Space” – Later English Literature
• @antipodean.books on Instagram

Please visit my website here for a full list of links and notes on what I talked about in this episode, plus a full transcription!

• My Instagram and Goodreads
• The Community Library’s Instagram and Goodreads
• Cover artwork is by Ashley Ronning
• Ashley’s Instagram, website, and printing studio website