PRINCESS KAIULANI From her land to mine she goes The island maid, the island rose, Light of heart and bright of face, The daughter of a double race. Her islands here in southern sun Shall mourn their Kaiulani gone, And I, in her dear banyan shade Look vainly for my little maid. But our Scots island far away Shall glitter with unwonted day, And cast for once their tempests by To smile in Kaiulani's eye. SEA HISTORY, FALL 1977
"Written in April," wrote Robert Louis Stevenson, conveying this verse to Kaiulani as she left for England in 1889, " in the April of her age, and at Waikiki wit hin easy wa lk of Kai ulani' s banyan. When she comes to my land, a nd her father's, and the rain beats upon her window (as I fear it will), let her look at this page; it wi ll be like a weed gat hered and preserved at home; and she will remember her own islands, and the shadow of the mighty tree; and she will hear the peacocks screaming in the dark and the wind blowing in the palms; and she wi ll think of her father sitting there a lone." Ships are always named for a reason: the reason for our ship' s naming is rendered by a master here.
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