Strange Fruit

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Strange Fruit “Southern trees bear a strange fruit / blood on the leaves and blood on the root” (Meeropol 1-2). These were the first two lines used in Abel Meeropol’s famous poem “Strange Fruit.” Published in 1937, Meeropol got his inspiration from the 1930 lynching of two negro teenagers. A famous photo was taken the horrific night and seven years later when it landed in Abel’s hand, he found it so disturbing and he realized he had to write something about it, thus the poem, “Strange Fruit” was born. In the poem, Meeropol describes of a “strange fruit” hanging from trees, in reality he is relating fruit to the dead bodies of the two negroe teenagers who were lynched. “Meeropol once said the photograph "haunted" him "for days.” So he wrote …show more content…

The tone and the mood of the poem distinctly states the message and you can easily tell how the poem sounds melancholy and ominous. The speaker, either Meeropol or Holiday, uses a strong but saddened tone, the reader or listener can tell the meaning of the poem. The amount of emotion used in the poem helps convey the theme because by the way Holiday sings the gruesome lyrics, anyone can tell how badly some people were affected by the lynching. The poem relates to history because it was written about the lynching of two teenagers in Marion, Indiana. The two teenagers, Thomas Shipp and Abraham Smith, were accused for the death and the rape of two white citizens, and they were later arrested. However, the people in the town were infuriated and busted in the jail and carried the two teens to be lynched. “That evening, local police were unable to stop a mob of thousands from breaking into the jail with sledgehammers and crowbars to pull the young men out of their cells and lynch them” (Blair). Photographer, Lawrence Beitler took the infamous photo that inspired Meeropol to write “Strange Fruit.” The photo Beitler took got a lot of attention and many copies were sold.“ The photograph shows two bodies hanging from a tree surrounded by a crowd of ordinary citizens, including women and children. Thousands of copies were made and sold. The photograph helped inspire the poem and

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