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.
Thank you for visiting! Please consider filling out our questionnaire. This will help us improve our service providing free educational media recorded from the University of Oxford. Many thanks!
Click here to access the survey (3 minutes to complete).
Smallpox in poetry
Loading Video...
Smallpox was common during the eighteenth-century, and its aftereffects much discussed and lamented in popular literature. This podcast explores its representation in eighteenth-century verse.
People:
Oxford Unit:
More in this Series...
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...
Subscribe
Download Media
- Audio (6.8 MB)