William F. Rean to Walt Whitman, 31 December 1890
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Egg Buckland
Crown Hill, R.S.O.,
Plymouth, Devon.
England,
New Year's Eve,
1890.
Dr. Brother. & Sir.
Upon the threshold of another year I stand without the gate, knocking; pray
let me in, for I, a pilgrim, Heavenward bound, a Counsellor need. Young, without friends,
such as 'I' love, daily do toil at the great task,
that task which
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Thou didst learn—the
Case and type and for me—what
emblems of this cruel world! Yet stay, I come—in spirit come—to tell
thee that I love thee, having
learn'd thy life. God grant thee many a year and passing hence may Thou and I, joined soul
and soul, know Heaven and God and Love and
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Peace which now I know dwelt never here to stay.
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Correspondent:
William Frederick Smith
Kingcombe Rean (1862–1932) was an English Socialist, newspaperman, and
poet. He was born in Plymouth, England, one of four children to John Rean
(1838–1886) and Mary Ann Kingcombe (1839–1919). The 1881 English
census indicates that Rean was already working as a printer at age eighteen, and
subsequent censuses show that he remained a typographer and compositor
throughout his life. During his time as an editor at papers including the West Ham Citizen and the Western
Morning News, he was active in socialist circles and wrote on various
social causes. After his death, his poems that originally appeared in newspapers
were collected in Selections from the Poems of W. F. K.
Rean (London : Twentieth Century Press, 1932).