Summary of A Woman by Gabriela Mistral
A Woman is a poem by Gabriela Mistral, Chilean poet. The poem presents the theme of a mother’s love and care towards children. The speaker faces different difficulties while raising her children. But she never felt tension while interacting with difficulties.
In this poem, the speaker as a mother calls her child by different names. She uses different names like Aleppo pine (source of shelter), Little stream (growing stage) and Golden Mirror (symbol of hope for mother). The speaker is a single mother. Her house is in worst condition but she lacks money to repair it.
She has no one to express her feelings. She used to live in her own house. But now she is facing miserable condition. No one speaks to her. She shares her pain to her inner soul. She spends her time collecting pieces of woods from destroyed house.
She counts woods but she has to use it carefully. She has to save it for tomorrow. She spends day waiting for the night. She spends night waiting better tomorrow. She is expecting some kind of miracle in her life. She burns it to warm her child.
She becomes happy by seeing her child’s growth. She finds her dreamy future in her child. Her other children are dead. So, she is very much concerned about her child’s health. She protects her child from cold by wrapping him in warm clothes.