The University's collection of these can be found via. Oxlip They all contain large amount of searchable text, and the same kind of techniques can be used to help find what you need as efficiently as possible. The examples below are produced by searching LION , which is a collection of Chadwyck-Healey literary databases delivered online. If you search the Master index or all of the literary databases you will again find that there are thousands of hits. However the databases can be used more effectively by using similar strategies to those used on the web.
Large databases are very useful for providing context for a particular author.
They can be particularly illuminating where studies of literary influence are concerned. The examples below are based on the opening lines of Milton's paradise lost, which you can see by clicking here . Make the most of the functionality The databases own search options can help. To search the English Poetry Database for the word 'disobedience', only in the works of Milton you can use the author menu. If you want to widen the search to his contemporaries then use the period menu and specify Jacobean and Caroline poetry To compare the way the use of a word changes, or how other poets may imitate Milton, try searching for 'unattempted' in Jacobean and Caroline poetry and comparing this with all periods.