The Hills Of Aiea Poem by S. J. Fulton

To the hills of Aiea, Kamehameha came,
Lord of his people on isles beyond his seeing.
Shading his eyes, the king stood cloaked in fame
And crowned by a curious crested feathered helm.
To us, he might have looked the very being
Of another sea-king of an ancient island realm.

Seafaring son of wandering island folk,
Chivalrous in the way of savage men,
He had a power about him when he spoke
Like that of the other, elder king, until
You might have thought the other lived again
In this brown man who looked down from his hill.

The brown king, too, has gone to that dim isle
Where heroes feast until the end of days.
Now and then does he look up and smile
At old Ulysses’ tales? And perhaps does he
Stand forth and sing his own heroic lays
Of a distant island in the wine-dark sea?