Captain James Cook: A Film and a Poem

BBC 4 iPlayer: Captain Cook: The Man Behind The Legend


The Dream Came True- 
Captain Cook at Kealakekua Bay

Deified on first arrival,
Honoured with the sacred cape,
Hail Great Lono, the god returned!
-The God of Song and Agriculture,
Protector of the Sweet Potato,
The Season of Abundance.
Hawaiians bowed in exaltation,
Fell down flat upon their faces,
They worshipped him, Orono, Lono,
But not for long. It all went wrong.

He returned again, no more divine.
He overstayed his welcome.
Cook was tired; he lost his temper.
The violent time; no time for song.
Lumps of lava, rocks were thrown.
A chief was killed. It all went wrong.
Cook was clubbed
And spiked and stabbed.
They took his body,
They wore his clothes;
Torn to pieces;
They passed round the bones.
They mocked the British;
One wore Cook's hat,
Doffed and tossed it in the air.
Reprisal time.
Brits went ashore to shoot Hawaiians,
They had their day and burnt the houses.
What remained of Captain Cook?
Bits of head, hands, feet they'd buried:
Gnawed bones returned by chastened natives-
Sown in a sack, consigned to the sea.
The Sandwich Islands.
St. Valentine's Day.


Copyright Jim Potts

From Five Poems

 (Jim Potts)