Alfonsina Storni (1892-1938) is considered one of the most prominent voices in Latin American poetry of the twentieth century, and among women poets, second only, perhaps, to the Nobel laureate Gabriela Mistral. From the start of her literary career Storni raised eyebrows for her controversial feminism, her indomitable honesty, and her barbed wit. Indeed she took on the role of enfant terrible with gusto, displaying a gleeful propensity for mockery and impish behavior. By the late 1920s and early 1930s, Storni was undoubtedly an established poet of considerable prestige and immense popularity. Her readings were attended by hundreds of adoring fans who not only purchased her books but also learned her poems by heart. She was a literary phenomenon most comparable perhaps to the American Edna St. Millay, with whom she shared, among other things, an urbane irony and a defiant yet ludic feminism. In 1935 Storni was unfortunately diagnosed with cancer. Her summers were spent on the seashore of Mar de Plata, an inspirational setting for many of her nature poems of this period. Though she was surely haunted by the specter of death, Storni galvanized the discipline and will to complete her last book of poems which many critics judged to be her crowning achievement, Mascarilla y trebol (Mask and Clover), published shortly before her suicide.
