"Fear" is Gabriela Mistral's poem of a mother's love for her daughter, the intensity of which instills fear that the girl may become so worldly, successful, or well known that she will be unavailable to her own mother one day.

The poem opens with the woman declaring that she does not want "them" to turn her little daughter into a swallow because the daughter would then be able to fly away and perhaps never return. If the girl were to transform into a swallow, she would no longer sleep on her mother's straw mat and may even take up residence in the eaves of the house where the young girl could not be reached by her mother who wants to comb her hair. The mother repeats her fear of "them" turning her daughter into a swallow.

The mother transitions from the birds to the fear...