From the doorway, Manuela, in the sheeny April morn,

Southward looks, along the valley, over leagues of gleaming corn;

Where the mountain's misty rampart like the wall of Eden towers,

And the isles of oak are sleeping on a painted sea of flowers.

All the air is full of music, for the winter rains are o'er,

And the noisy magpies chatter from the budding sycamore;

Blithely frisk unnumbered squirrels, over all the grassy slope;

Where the airy summits brighten, nimbly leaps the antelope.

Gentle eyes of Manuela! tell me wherefore do ye rest

On the oaks' enchanted islands and the flowery ocean's breast?