The inspiring poems of Charles Croker (Essay Sample)

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The inspiring poems of Charles Croker
Introduction
Charles Croker was born in Chichester on 22rd of July 1797, in a very poor background family. His parents had a very large family and could not afford to take him to school after his seventh year. he later got assistance from friends whom he says that he will forever remain grateful to because it was thought them that he was able to attend an additional four years in school. He was admitted in Grey Coat School and he got to access some elementary education that helped him to be able to learn how to write and read very efficiently (Charles IX). He was also able to learn some basics in arithmetic. In this same institution, he was able to appreciate the importance of religion and he claims is what enabled him to have persevered the various trials and tribulations that came his way.
Charles Croker’s Background
Due to the interest that he had developed in reading, he made it his business to steal any possible opportunity to read very carefully the books that he could lay his hands on. Some of these books included the Bible, the Robinson Crusoe as well as the Pilgrim’s process. The last book was one that Charles found to be very delighting and that was why he kept on reading it again and again(Charles IX) . The book inspired him by analyzing the merits and very strong religious principles of religion. By reading it more and more, he could not help but feel the connection between his own adventurous episodes and those of the writer.
Between his eleventh and twelve year of age, he was able to work as a shoemaker as he was thought to have been old enough to be able to handle the task. This work was very favorable to his situation as he very well thought. His mind was hardly occupied but it was his hands that were always at work. He found time to become imaginative and become very intellectual in trying to come up with some creative ideas. He continued to follow this occupation for at least more than twenty years. With finding some little free time between this work periods, he was able to read more and more work which in this case included a lot of poetry work (Charles X). This was where he drew his Inspiration of writing some verses of his own. He also read some criticism editions which gave him the inspiration of composing his own verses.
It was rather unfortunate that Charles had a serious problem with his grammar and this was why he decided to put extra effort in improving it. He purchased the necessary grammar books and dedicated himself to more reading. At least he was able to come up with a clear distinction between nouns and verbs (Charles X). Charles continued to work very hard to achieve his dream .At some point, some of his lines were contributed to Brighton Herald and this earned him some attention. He was able to have his first and second edition published.
Charles was able to make a substantial amount of profit from the sales of the first two editions since a numerous number of subscribers were able to access the volumes. He was able to use his own words to compose the Preface of his last edition. He claimed that his main source of inspiration was his family since he was trying his best to provide his family with enough comfort through the publication of these poems (Charles X).
A number of well famous individuals who highly appreciated the importance of poetry were able to lay their hands on the pieces of work of Charles Crocker. Robert Southey showed a great concern to the poetry from Charles Croker’s poetry since it portrayed a great deal of talent and admiration in their character. He said that if he had the power to make such innocent amusements instrumental towards the support of one numerous family, then he hoped to plead some claim to their countenance. In his Lives and Works of Our Uneducated Poets, was the first to draw attention to working-class writers as a group phenomenon (Harvey 300).
Charles Croker recalled the time when he first began witting his verses and he insisted that by the time he was starting to write down his verses, it was after listening to a lecture on Milton and Shakespeare. He said ”About this time, too, I became possessed of Dr. Blair's Lectures on Rhetoric; for which I gave in exchange all the money I could muster, and several books that I had previously bought and read” (Charles X).
Later in the year 1839, Charles got employed by Mr. W. Mason who was the person who actually helped him with the publication of all his editions in the book selling department of his business. In the year 1845, when he was around 64 years he resigned from his job after he had received an appointment of sexton of the cathedral and later on became the Bishop’s Verger Mr. Crocker was a very contented man despite the trials that he had gone through earlier. The world had always given him the support that the reality needed especially with his poet work.
Historical transmission of Charles Croker’s poems
Charles claimed that he had always felt very pleased to compose my own poems. He was mostly told that it was not always supposed to look like a destitute of merit but if it could be effectively put in print, and then it could be very helpful to some other people. He somehow had some hope that it would also be possible for someone like him to produce very god poetry, despite the great hardships that he had previously passed through (Charles I).
It was considered common knowledge that it would be very difficult to climb up the ladder of fame without the help of strong figures in the public. Charles knew this fact for sure and that is why he tried his very best to seek his help from the known patrons in the poetry field. It proved very difficult to succeed and he dedicated himself to a lot of practice and got encouragement from the few low life friends who were always by his side. He later managed to have his work printed when the M.S papers got into the hands of some individual who was willing to convert what he had always considered to be some pure amusement to become reality by putting it in print. He emphasized that from his young days, it was never his dream to become a professional author. This was mainly based on his family background where he never really believed in attracting sympathy from his friends .He did not want to make it look like being a poet was what he based his future life on.
He was a bit hesitant to give a little information on his bibliography, but he had to give it a second thought when his very important friends give him another opinion all together. He was told that since this would be the very first edition that would expose him to the public, then he would really need to give a little background information to his new readers, so that they could acquaint themselves with his situation. Charles went on to highlight that a critical reader would not fail to notice the enormous grammatical errors that occurred in his pieces of work. He accredited this to his poor educational background (Charles IX). He explained that with the support of his great friends, he was very grateful because they helped him acquire some basic grammar education.
After the publication and selling of the first edition to the public, Charles got such a great feeling and relief from his first release of his little work. The public loved his work which was evident from the profit that he was making. Despite all the grammatical errors that were found in his poems, the readers still found a lot of innocent amusement and gratification from reading the pieces. This was all out of the generous contribution from his patronage and since they were more than willing to continue funding him, he was encouraged to go ahead and produce the second edition (Charles X). Since the publication of the first edition, Charles seemed to have a lot of free time at his disposal and this was why he decided to add a few more pieces to his original copy. Charles also claimed that his chief desire to reprint this piece of work and in fact have additional pieces was to ensure that his family did not stop to enjoy the great pleasure that came from the sales of the book. All in all he did not stop to claim that this whole success could not have been possible were it not for the great support that he got from his patronage.
For Charles to publish the third edition, he claimed that eleven years had elapsed since the poems were released to the public with the help of Mason. He assisted him to publish all the editions. There had been great patronage that had been extended to him and he could not find enough words to express his gratitude. This patronage had amazingly helped him to dispose off the first and then second editions of his work. This particular advantage was combined with his inborn desire to ensure there was continuity of his family mainly from the benefits of the sales of his books. Kingsley noticed the talent that Charles’ Croker had and he felt the need to go ahead and republish all of his original work but this time with some additional piece in this third edition (Charles V). He had great trust that his friends would greatly support him just like it had always been from the time he published his first edition.
Analytical bibliography of Charles’ Croker’s’ poems
The analytical bibliography mainly attempts to determine the printing history of the book by examining its physical features in order to come up with a comprehensive textual analysis. The bibliography will show enough evidence and findings which the critics, textual and any other person will not be able to ignore. The main idea is to avoid replacing the original idea of the author but still bring out a clear physical appearance of the book.
In Charles Croker’s first edition, the work was printed on behalf of the author by Mason. This it was later s...