Unveiling Charles Crocker: Textual Analysis of an Obscure Victorian Poet

Charles Crocker (1797-1861) and his poetry were once so well known in Chichester, Sussex, England in the mid 1800s that Crocker was simply called, 'the Poet'.His life and work are now forgotten.Apprenticed to a shoemaker at the age of 12, young Crocker composed poems in his head.After the birth of a daughter and being widowed at 21, he was urged to publish.Crocker would go on to complete five editions of poetry and become a church sexton.Nearly all of his poems were composed in early life.When his beloved Chichester Cathedral's spire famously collapsed in 1861, it killed no one; but Crocker soon died of grief.This paper introduces an obscure and lost voice in early Victorian literature.In addition, the method to discover such lost voices is described.Crocker's work is also described, and some textual differences between the various editions of Crocker's canon, a historical context and biography, using Ancestry.com,detailing the poet's fall into obscurity, are also highlighted.Insightful biographical information that illuminates his development as a working-class poet is given.The author suggests that the benefits of uncovering lost 19th-century voices are unlimited.Twenty-first century educators and scholars must learn such valuable research skills in bibliography and textual studies in order to uncover obscure voices.Literature is thus enriched and diversity magnified.As the bicentennial of the release of Crocker's first collection of poetry (1830-2030) approaches, it is hoped that this essay shall serve as a reintroduction of sorts to at least one lost Victorian voice.