Born in Kovno, Lithuania, Lea Goldberg studied at Lithuanian and German universities, receiving her Ph.D. in 1933. She came on aliyah in 1935 where she worked as a literary adviser to Habimah theater and as an editor for Sifriyat Poalim books. She became a lecturer in literature at the Hebrew University in 1954.

Her poems are known for their melancholy subjects with positive messages. Her themes include wounded love as well as a yearning for love and light. Her work is marked by an aesthetic intellectualism bordering on modernism.

In addition to her poems, she wrote poems for children, a novel, a play and was responsible for translating a number of Russian and French masters into Hebrew.