A woman by Gabriela Mistral -summary and analysis

The poem ‘A woman’ written by Gabriela Mistral is about a mother’s love and care she pays while rearing them. The poem shows a mother’s struggle to bring up a child despite severe difficulties.

A woman by Gabriela Mistral [Summary and analysis]

About the poet Gabriela Mistral

Gabriela Mistral (1889-1957) was a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist. She was awarded the Noble Prize in Literature in 1945 as the first Latin American writer. 

She was born and raised in the poor areas of Northern Chile where she was in close contact with the poor from her early life. She started helping her family as an assistant teacher in the public school system. She taught at four American colleges - Barnard, Middlebury, Mills, and Vassar. 

She defended the right of children, women, and the poor: the freedoms of democracy, and the need for peace in times of social, political, and ideological conflicts in the whole world. She always took the side of those who were mistreated by society; children, women, Native Americans, Jews, war victims, workers, and the poor and she tried to speak for them through poetry. 

She began her long relationship with the United States with the publication of her first book, Desolation, in New York. Her works, both in verse and prose, deal with the basic passion of love to mothers, children, and all humankind. She was loved and honored throughout the world as one of the great humanistic voices.

This poem shows the unconditional love of a mother for her children. The poem ' A Woman' depicts the love and responsibility of a mother to a child in the absence of his father. The struggle of a single mother to rear her child presents the hope for the child to have a better future.  The mother struggles to grow up the child with care and love tolerating the hardship and difficulty of single life seeing the bright future. She is hopeful of seeing the miraculous days of her child.

The title of the poem ‘A woman’ has a different meaning:

 1) A birth giver

2) A source of unconditional love

3)  A pain bearer

4) An inspirer

5) A good wisher

 

The mother in the poem calls her children through different names which have symbolic meanings.

1) Aleppo pine:

This means the support for his mother to provide shelter from sun and rain

2) Little stream:

This means that the child is still growing and one day he will meet the ocean( grow up)

3) Golden mirror

Ray of hope.

Summary of the poem A woman

     The woman in the poem is a single mother. She has a child whom she calls Aleppo pine golden mirror and a little stream. Her house is burned and destroyed but she doesn’t repair it. She has no one to express her feelings except her soul. She collects and burns the pieces of wood from her destroyed house to keep the child warm. The child is growing and one day he will stand on his own. The mother becomes happy seeing the child’s growth. She dreams of her child’s golden future. Some of her children are already dead and they are laying in the graveyard.  She raised every child with love and care. She is worried about the child’s health. So she gave affection of her chest to children to protect them. She wraps them in warm clothes.