Poem Analysis: Strange Fruit

When I first watched the video “Strange Fruit” I found it nothing short of gruesome. The words swelled my eyes with tears as the images thwacked into my empathetic heart like an axe cutting into a tree. I could feel each clang as each picture changed. I listened intently to the words that sadly sawed through the lyrics leaving sawdust and residue in my mind. The song bears the pain of the fruit that has been lost. The title, like the trunk of a tree, is the foundation of the song, the representation of its strength but not what is most remembered. The pictures, are the flowers, of the video blooming of the face of each hanged man. The leaves, as Billy Holiday sings them, so simple but yet the crown of the tree, the sadness over the hierarchal rank

“For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck, For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop.” The men hanging to wither and rot for no reason other than ignorance, greed and prejudice. “A strange and bitter crop.”

The video and lyrics accomplished its intent to shock and inform. I have seen movies, and read books where slavery is talked about or seen. I saw “Roots” and “Amistad” and had moments of just pure anger and commiseration for those people. However, they were both movies with length and depth. I am impressed at the reaction and response that I had from this sixteen line poem. The arrangement of the music, tone of voice, and choice of photo’s will forever be deep-rooted in my