The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1912-01-13
Dr.. G0Odhue'S Verse

He writes of children as well as for
them, alphabetically and sweetly, a
rare and beautiful gift.
The following verses from "Aloho
Nui De" are redolent of the myriad
charms of Hawaii:
Nowhere viii fairer sky o'erspread
Its canopy of blue;
Nowhere will purer moonbeams fall
or gentler stars shine through.
Nowhere will breezes blow more soft
Nowhere will sun and rain
Mingle in such a mystic arch
over the Hill and plain.
Nowhere are woody slopes more green.
Nowhere are tints more rare;
Sweet are the flowers which bloom I'M
seen,
Seeming the evening air.
The first verse of The Selfsame
Star" gives an idea of the direct sim
plicity of the poets offerings to his
juvenile readers:
1t is truly very pretty
That no matter where you are,
You can see the same moon smiling
And the same Wee blinking star.
The following verses from "A Royal
Palm Am T. are good:
l am royal by my birthright,
Tall and branchless L rise,
Waving my pIumes to the light,
Lifting my head to the skies
| grace the homes of the great,
Stately mansion and hall;
Guarding the iron-clad gate
Or the massive, moss-grown wall.
Let the monkey-pod extend
To all it's shelter free.
Reach abroad it's arms and bend
Toward earth in sympathy.
Such work shall never be mine
Look at my tasseled breast!
Kingly, by right divine
Knighted by mark and crest.
The Cherry Bough" might be a
translation from a Japanese disciple
of Lefcadio Hearn, so dainty is its
imagery. Its stanzas run:
Dressed in a red kimono, she
Is sitting by a dark, gray sea,
Under a snow-white cherry tree.
As one by one the petals fall,
She picks them up and puts them all
Into her dainty parasoI.
o pretty little Japanese,
Did you come over in the breeze
Far from your lotus bordered seas?
You are more like butterfly:
A bit of wing-a speck of sky
Or gauzy cloud-thing up on high!
pillow Thoughts" would deserve a
place in another "Child's Garden of
Verses" Here it is:
When day thoughts are looked up at
night,
How do our dream-t thoughts get
through?
Little pillows, so soft and white,
I think they must come from you.
know you are full of something
Up in your head, I guess
But you seem to do your thinking
When close to your heart press.
The pretty dreams pass in my ear,
And all your feathers sing;
wish l could tell you what I hear
It's too sweet for anything.
It's cute for my pillow to keep
Itself so much awake;
To talk and talk when I'm asleep,
All for a little girls sake.
Ripe Guavas" brings to one that
same sense of indefinable longing as
is experienced in reading the first
paragraph of Stevenson's THE Beach
of Falesa," in which the master
speaks of The smell of lines and
flowers" borne to sea-weary souls as
a tropic land is sighted the smell
of lines and flowers, and other things
beside"
The fragment is as follows:
Did you ever smell ripe guavas on the
ground?
To me tbs like some pleasing rhyme or
pleasant sound;
1t makes me think Of other things
which sea-air brings in guava-
time.
L'envoi, The Books Done" is an
original thought, acceptably worded:
Isn't it strange how thoughts unfold
All of themselves like cloth of gold
How threadlike words arrange them
selves,
As flowers or buds or gnomes or elves,
TIL the whole fabrics spun
And the books done
The book, which is well-printed, is
dedicated to "One thousand boys and
girls in Kona-and others"
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