Strange Fruit Essay

“Strange Fruit” Poetry Analysis Essay “Blood on the leaves and blood on the root / Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze” (Meeropol 2-3). The poem “Strange Fruit” was published in the 1930s by Abel Meeropol. Meeropol was an English teacher in Dewitt Clinton High School, a photograph of lynching motivated Meeropol for writing the poem, “Strange Fruit”. Meeropol didn’t like that racism was still persistent in America. The photograph of the lynching was a terrible and disturbing picture of two colored teenagers being hanged. The poem “Strange Fruit” was disturbing and sad. The message that the poem was trying to convey was that racism was a terrible and horrible thing to see; and that people shouldn’t be cruel to colored people or anyone, …show more content…
“Black bodies swingin’ in the Southern breeze / Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees” (Meeropol 3-4). The black bodies in this poem were two teenagers who were hanged. The point of view in this poem is in third person. The “Strange Fruit” in this poem are the two teenagers who were in the photograph that inspired Meeropol to write “Strange Fruit”. “Meeropol once said the photograph "haunted" him "for days." So he wrote a poem about it, which was then printed in a teachers union publication” (Blair). The photograph of lynching haunted Meeropol, that’s when he decided and got the idea to write the poem “Strange Fruit”. The feelings that the poem “Strange Fruit” gives me are chills, disturbance, and sadness because they took lives of colored people; just because of how they looked and what color they were. The images I get when I read or hear the poem “Strange Fruit” is the faces of the two teenagers that were hanged, and the faces of those awful people who were smiling and supporting the hanging of colored people. So, as you can tell the theme of this poem is …show more content…
Racism was really bad in the south and it is still present today. In the poem there was a lot of imagery and metaphors used to describe and convey the message that Abel Meeropol wanted readers to know. “Strange Fruit” was about colored people who were disrespected and were lynched. Abel Meeropol despised the act of racism, and wrote the poem, “Strange Fruit”, when seeing a photograph of two colored teenagets being hanged. The meaning and the message Meeropol wanted readers to know was that racism went to far and that it was severe and unpleasant. What we can learn from the poem “Strange Fruit” is that racism shouldn’t be shown to nobody because of how they dress or what color they are, and that everyone is equal no matter what religion or skin tone they have. Racism is relevant to themes in life because people do judge others by how they look and some even judge or dislike others because of their skin tones and religion. Abel Meeropol was successful at conveying his message or goal because people now know how colored people had a difficult time back then in the South. The value or significance of this poem is inspiring by writing something that you believed in and showing others how racism was horrible and shouldn’t be