Ten short podcasts on quirky aspects of eighteenth-century life.
This series of short podcasts offers an alternative history of the eighteenth century. Ten poems were chosen that illustrate the everyday and the extraordinary, the comic and the serious aspects of the period. Each talk begins with a poem, and shows its significance: how a satire on the pleasures of tobacco tells us of the relationship between intoxication and inspiration, or how a poem on apple pie speaks of evolving national identity. The series covers, amongst other things: tobacco, sport, epigrams, children and food....
Smallpox was rife in the eighteenth century, leaving its mark both on its sufferers, and on the literature of the period. This podcast explores its history in verse. Smallpox was common during the eighteenth-century, and its aftereffects much discussed and lamented in popular literature. This...
Published 09/16/13
Explores the aesthetics and impact of war poetry in the early eighteenth century, focussing on Joseph Addison's poem, The Campaign. Blood, guts and gore all feature heavily in eighteenth century war poems. This podcast explores the popularity of the early eighteenth-century battle poem. Creative...
Published 09/16/13