The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1902-11-10
NEW POET ON
HAWAIIAN LORE

n
Hawaii has always inspired the muse
! and a collection of island verse would
be a volume full of natures voices.
The late Rollin NJ. Daggett, when Uni
ted States Minister here, wrote a num-
Der of poems, one of them, Waikiki
in which
The cocoa with it's crest of spears
Keeps watch along the crescent shore
! having a rhythm and grace which has
rippled from it into all subsequent ro-
! mances of Hawaii nei. T. Rain
| Walkers verses on ''Far-off Waianae''
are often quoted and readers of the
! Advertiser have cause to remember the
! versiication of George Ewart, the
bard of Dalbeattie," in whom age and
long absence had not dimmed the mem
DRY or lessened the inspiration of Ha-
Raiian scenes. OF later verse-makers
Mrs. Frear and Philip Henry Dodge are
the best known; but now comes an
other one. Leopold Blackman, to share
their opportunities fame.
Mr.. Blackman has lately published
"Kaupeepee, An Idyll of Hawaii" the
quality of which is revealed by these
excerpts from the opening pages:
KAUPEEPEE.
From out the maze of the unnumbered
That, ever lulled by balmy springtime.
Upon the mighty sea that sternly
The restless West from the lethargic
East,
Came Nanaula-offspring of the gods.
Then were the days of mist: the days
when great
But nigh forgotten deeds of god and
Loom dimly in the first thin ray of
dawn;
Yet not less witness truth than
shadows, traced
BY light of nights young crescent,
truly linn
The graceful fretting of the stately
palm.
A thousand and four hundred times has
earth
Drawn from the grateful sun her life
Since, guarded by the gods he bore,
who lit
Each night the beacon of the guiding
star,
And leashed tn elusive wine within his
sail,
Great Nanaula to Owhyhee came
The mighty founder of a race of men.
So came he in that long grim barge,
that built
OF massive timbers closely Joined and
caulked,
And, need be, might a hundred war
riors hold,
Had constant battled on through I'M
keeled seas
And grimly held her way; impatient
The long slow rollers with disdainful
prov,
Had met h reeling storm, and proud
ly hurled tte
It's broken waters from her quiyering
deck,
Exulting in her proof of mastery.
Thus Nanaula came to Pele's isles,
From the far stands of the incensed
south.
And with him were his wife, his stall
wart son
That lowered above the height of NOR
tai man,
In godlike mien and perfect form that
told
Their wondrous source: the dreaded
priests that
Their mystic birth-right to the mystic
Kane, the autho of this wondrous
frame:
And Ku the mighty architect, whose
Had wrought the perfect work; and
Lono, he Z
Who holds h winds and calls with
rugged voice,
And tends the neither fires that roar
within
The earth, and those on high that veng-
ing dart
From out the sullen cloud: and last, but
set
In lesser mould, yet men of noble
frame,
Whose bronzed thews, when winds had
Stacked their aid,
The ponderous cradle of their race had
thrust
Across the wave, the fathers of a ma
ton
Yet to be, are given upon the land.
This poem in it's entirety takes up
hfty-four pages and does not lag in:
interest or lose in the finish of it's liter
airy workmanship. 1t is a remarkable
production, especially for a young
writer, such as Mr.. Blackman is. The
work is handsomely printed under at
tractive paper overs and is published
IN Honolulu by William C. Lyon.
m AETAODlTN