Gabriela Mistral and the tremendous gift of poetic madness

Abstract

The personal character of Gabriela Mistral's lyric poetry is clearly manifest both in her use of several lyrical voices to represent herself and in the use of self-reference to her own works. Among these references to herself, that of poetic madness is particularly important: it is an expression of the author's innate poetic talent. "Flor del aire," a poem from Tala, expounds in a symbolic narrative Mistral's poetic call and its awesome demands.