This podcast looks at the relationship between tobacco and poetic inspiration, through some popular comic poems.

History of the Eighteenth Century in Ten Poems

Poetry and Tobacco

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. Showcasing a selection of the material in the English Faculty's Digital Miscellanies Index, exploring some of the more surprising ways in which popular collections of verse offer us a glimpse of the social, political and cultural history of their time.

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History of the Eighteenth Century in Ten Poems