Crown Princess Victoria Kaiulani Kalaninuiahilapalapa Kawekiu i Lunalilo Cleghorn of Hawaii
Daughter of Princess Likelike and Archibald Cleghorn. Her uncle was King David Kalakaua and her aunt would eventually become Queen Liliuokalani, reigning monarch of The Kingdom of Hawaii.
What would a young princess of this island kingdom have in common with a poet from the British Isles?
Robert Lewis Stevenson arrived in the kingdom in 1889 he became close friends with the King. Due to the Cleghorn family’s connection to Scotland, the King introduced the writer to them and he developed an attachment to the young princess.
Eventually, when the decision was made to send the young princess to Britain to further her education, the writer penned a poem to the young girl that had become so very dear to him. While it might not be considered a triumph of literary gold, to the young princess travelling far from home it must have been a great comfort to her.
FORTH 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 islands far away
Shall glitter with unwonted day,
And cast for once their tempests by
To smile in Kaiulani’s eye.
