How Is The Metaphor Used In Strange Fruit

“Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves and blood at the root.” this is an excerpt from the poem “Strange Fruit”. In this poem, the main point that the authors, Billie Holiday and Abel Meeropol, wrote about is the “strange fruit” which is actually a metaphor. The metaphor is comparing the fruit and slaves, and how they were hung from trees during the pre-Civil Rights times. Along with the metaphors, the literary devices that the author Billie Holiday uses in the poem “Strange Fruit” are imagery and emotional appeal. These literary devices are seen used throughout most of the poem to communicate the message of how slaves were horribly hanged on trees explaining the race relations and how this was a big cry for the Civil Rights movement. …show more content…
Imagery is a big literary device that is being used in this poem. “Blood on the leaves and blood at the root, Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze.” This excerpt shows a very strong imagery that the author used. In the excerpt, the author is describing the bloody bodies that are hanged on the trees. In the poem, imagery is used so frequently that one can picture what is happening in each stanza. The authors are contrasting pleasant images with horrid imagery when describing the bodies, for example, “Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh, Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.” This is a very big contrast from a pleasing smell to a not so delightful smell, showing the strong imagery that the authors included to describe how the smell changed from a very pleasant scent of magnolias to the scent of the burning