"Fear" is a poem written by Chilean poet, educator, humanist and Nobel Prize laureate Gabriela Mistral. In it, the author talks about a mother who is afraid that her daughter will soon grow up into a young girl, and she will leave her mother behind to be with her new friends, schoolmates, and teachers. Mistral does not specify where exactly the poem takes place; however, considering that she grew up in the small Chilean village of Montegrande, we might assume that the mother and the daughter live in a rural environment as well. There is a specific verse in the poem in which Miriam mentions a meadow that might confirm the previous theory, as meadows are usually typical of villages or smaller towns and communities.

In tiny golden slippers

how could she play on the meadow?