Metaphors In Strange Fruit

“Strange Fruit Analysis” In response to the terrible act of lynchings, a poem was written in protest to the terrible acts. The poem “Strange Fruit”,published in 1939, and written by Abel Meeropol and popularized by Billie Holiday is a poem that was written in protest to lynchings. Abel Meeropol was a teacher, poet, and social activist who was haunted by pictures of lynchings, which is when a mob takes black men who have been accused of wrongdoing, and usually hang them. The pictures haunted him, and he wrote the poem “Strange Fruit” in response to them. This poem was very haunting, and made me really think about what happened during a lynching, and how terrible it was, so it conveys a meaning of haunting and death. In the poem, “Strange Fruit”, the lynchings that took place at the time are being described. It describes Southern trees, which have bodies swaying from them, with blood all over, and then tells how nature slowly takes apart the bodies, as if they were crops. The poem is told from a person who was standing before
the tree, and seems to be watching it the whole time. Also, the “strange fruit” that hang from the trees are the bodies of black people who were hung in the trees. The author wrote this poem in response to a horrifying picture of a lynching. This poem always gives me the image of a black man’s body that is hanging from a tree, with blood all near him. The corpse is half-rotted and there are crows plucking at the skin. The image that the poem gives me is almost exactly like the picture that caused Abel Meeropol to write the poem. The theme of this poem is how terrible racism is, and that is what the lynchings were all about. The meaning of this poem is to be very horrific, yet he includes some sweet things in the poem, such as, “Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh”(Meeropol). The mood of this poem was very sad, and staccato, when Billie Holiday sang it. The mood was the same as the lyrics, because dead bodies swaying in the wind is sad, and not happy at all. This poem relates to history because it tells of what life was like back then, and how terrible lynchings were, which is hopefully left in history. In the poem, there are many examples of literary devices, such as metaphors, personification, and juxtaposition.
One example of a metaphor in the lyrics is, “Blood on the leaves and blood at the root” (Meeropol). This is an example of a metaphor because it is taking the tree, which is usually a symbol of life, and is comparing it to a symbol of death, since there is blood all over the tree. Also, personification takes place many times in the poem, “For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck” (Meeropol), is an example of personification. Rain and wind are being given a person’s quality, which is to gather and to suck, which is a person’s quality. Juxtaposition also takes place in the poem, as shown by the quote, “Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh Then the sudden smell of burnin’ flesh” (Meeropol). This is an example of juxtaposition because there is a nice thing, the magnolias, that is next to a terrible thing, the burning
flesh. So, in the poem “Strange Fruit”, by Abel Meeropol, many things happen, because lynchings, which have blood all over the place, are being described. The theme of the poem is how terrible racism is, and what it causes. Also, there are many examples of literary devices in the poem, such as metaphors, personification, and juxtaposition. The poem conveys a meaning of haunting and death to nearly anyone who reads it. Because of this, the author was very successful in achieving his message, and it makes it so that this poem has a high value, and is very significant in the racism era. So, this poem, by Abel Meeropol, became very influential in the racism era, and might have even started racism protests in the U.S.