Though Straumēni is written in prose, Virza called this work a long poem. Using a Neo-Classical approach, the author tells a story set in the 19th century, on a country homestead in the southern region of Zemgale. At the heart of this work are the author’s childhood memories and the stories he heard from his grandparents about the idyllic life of Latvian peasants. The world depicted in this book is imbued with a mythical sensibility, 
the yearly cycles described in it involving people as well as other living creatures. Along with work and responsibilities, the rhythms of nature 
and the mind change with the passage of time. For example, the entire household participates in growing and harvesting flax, and the linen fabric – which is a product of this work – serves as a symbol of unity for the people of Straumēni. Therefore, this process and its result must come from the entire family’s shared labour.

The central figure in Straumēni is not any one person, but instead the entire Straumēni household. The reader is introduced to the traditional Latvian way of life as a welcomed guest, to whom the family shows 
the material and spiritual meaning of all things, seemingly outside of 
the context of time or history. The expressive story-telling style brings scents, tastes, and colours to life and makes this work thrilling as well as meditative. The language is euphonious and makes it easy to surrender 
to the flow of the story. In 1934, the well-known Latvian prose writer Jānis Veselis wrote the following about Virza and Straumēni: “He is a typical indoor poet filled with the constant alarm of a foreign time, which never stops and in the end changes everything.” At the end of his description, Veselis refers to Virza’s work as one of the brightest and happiest Latvian books, adding: “And this is why Straumēni is a bright and joy-filled book, it’s because a person isn’t left all alone with the sorrows and emptiness of the world.”

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