SOURCE: “The Crepuscular Landscape Motif in Two Poems by Gabriela Mistral,” in Hispanofila, Vol. 109, September, 1993, pp. 49–56.

In the following essay, Maier analyzes two of Mistral's poems, both of which dwell on twilight images, for modernist and avant-garde elements; Maier calls her a “poet of transition.”

Gabriela Mistral's rise to fame occurred during a transitional phase in Hispanic literature. In 1914, she achieved national recognition when she was awarded first prize in Chile's annual literary competition. Her celebrity spread abroad when in 1921, Professor Federico de Onís gave a lecture on Mistral's poetry to a group of North American teachers of Spanish who were so impressed that they promoted the publication of her first collection of poetry, Desolación (New York: Instituto de las Españas en los Estados Unidos, 1922). Thus, Mistral's work emerged in a period when the avant-garde had begun to compete for public attention and acclaim with...