La poesía de Gabriela Mistral es fiel a sus inquietudes religiosas, a su perspectiva de la muerte y a la dulzura de la maternidad. Sus versos, caracterizados por su fácil comprensión, componen su amor por la naturaleza, en especial la de América Latina, donde las danzas, las plantas y los animales son una puerta hacia las culturas, sus colores y sus elementos.
Lucila de María del Perpetuo Socorro Godoy Alcayaga (pseudonym: Gabriela Mistral), a Chilean poet, educator, diplomat, and feminist, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1945 "for her lyric poetry which, inspired by powerful emotions, has made her name a symbol of the idealistic aspirations of the entire Latin American world." Some central themes in her poems are nature, betrayal, love, a mother's love, sorrow and recovery, travel, and Latin American identity as formed from a mixture of Indian and European influences.