Song of Death

1914

Song of Death - meaning Summary

Maternal Plea to Death

Gabriela Mistral’s "Song of Death" is a desperate maternal plea asking Death, addressed as a trickster and "Anti-Mother of the world," to spare her child. The speaker imagines Death searching newborns and begs that the child’s name and identity be erased from Death’s memory so only the mother is found. The poem links intimate maternal fear with broader images of sea, wind, and confusion to keep death from the child.

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Old Woman Census-taker, Death the Trickster, when you’re going along, don’t you meet my baby. Sniffing at newborns, smelling for the milk, find salt, find cornmeal, don’t find my milk. Anti-Mother of the world, People-Collector — on the beaches and byways, don’t meet that child. The name he was baptized, that flower he grows with, forget it, Rememberer. Lose it, Death. Let wind and salt and sand drive you crazy, mix you up so you can’t tell East from West, or mother from child, like fish in the sea. And on the day, at the hour, find only me.