Gabriela Mistral

Pine Forest

Pine Forest - meaning Summary

Pines as Steady Refuge

The speaker invites a companion into a forest where trees move by but cannot bend to touch the person. Night watches broadly, yet the pines are singled out as unchanging, sources of healing and continuity. Imagery suggests the pines could lift and carry the person like a child passed among fathers, offering protection and continuity across valleys. The poem emphasizes refuge, steadiness, and the desire for restorative, paternal care in nature.

Read Complete Analyses

Let us go now into the forest. Trees will pass by your face, and I will stop and offer you to them, but they cannot bend down. The night watches over its creatures, except for the pine trees that never change: the old wounded springs that spring blessed gum, eternal afternoons. If they could, the trees would lift you and carry you from valley to valley, and you would pass from arm to arm, a child running from father to father.

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