[Skip Navigation]

Poetry Archives

A continuing selection of classic and contemporary poems.

At The Hacienda

Bret Harte

Know I not whom thou mayst be
  Carved upon this olive-tree,—
    “Manuela of La Torre,”—
For around on broken walls
Summer sun and spring rain falls,
And in vain the low wind calls
    “Manuela of La Torre.”

Of that song no words remain
  But the musical refrain,—
    “Manuela of La Torre.”
Yet at night, when winds are still,
Tinkles on the distant hill
A guitar, and words that thrill
  Tell to me the old, old story,—
Old when first thy charms were sung,
Old when these old walls were young,
    “Manuela of La Torre.”
Online text © 1998-2008 Poetry X. All rights reserved.
From Complete Poetical Works | Houghton, Mifflin & Company, 1902
Add Keyword Tags

Separate each tag with a space. You may add as many tags as you'd like to each poem.

What are tags?
Tags, sometimes called “folksonomies,” are words that describe or categorize a poem, like “20th century modernism” or “Italian sonnet”. Tags can help you find poems that have something in common, based on how other people classify them.

More Info

This site will work and look better in a browser that supports web standards, but it is accessible to any Internet device.