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Strange Fruit


            Strange Fruit is perhaps the greatest poem and song ever written in American history. It is about lynching in the southern United States in the early twentieth century. It was written by a white, Jewish, communist named Abel Meeropol. He was inspired by a rather ghastly picture of a lynching. "It haunted me for days," he later recalled. He approached Billie Holiday to do a version of the song. The poem itself brings tears to my eyes, but when I hear Billie Holiday sing this song I can truly understand the emotions and terror of an oppressed people in the south. She adds a life and strength to an already powerful poem.
             "Southern trees bear a strange fruit", is the first line of this poem. The word strange is the first word that hits you. It implies that what is going on is something not normal or something that just doesn't happen in the civilized world. The south had a culture that was not like anywhere else in America at the time. The author wanted the reader to see what he was talking about as illogical. Fruit brings to mind beautiful sweet things. He was implying that things that look good on the outside can actually be strange and rotten underneath.
             Billie Holiday sings this line almost like this may be a song for lovers. But this is only a thin sheet covering the dark sinister tone in her voice and music. Once she sings the line "blood on the leaves and blood at the roots," I am sure this is not going to be pleasant. Images of trees with strange fruit and blood from leaf to root bring up a horrific scene of violence although the reader has no idea what has happened here. This line brings you to the edge of your seat and sparks your curiosity. In her voice I can hear a dark windy autumn night. It is cold outside. She makes it sound as if evil ominous things are afoot. You know by her voice that there is death in the air.
             When you read or hear, "Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze," it almost makes this sound like a nice proposition; the southern breeze in your hair and on your skin cooling the warm weather.


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