The Full Text of “Strange Fruit”
The Full Text of “Strange Fruit”
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“Strange Fruit” Introduction
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"Strange Fruit," written by Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol in 1937, takes a harrowing and unflinching look at American racism. The poem specifically focuses on the horrific lynchings that took place primarily across the American South, in which black individuals were brutally tortured and murdered—and often strung up from trees to be gawked at—by white supremacists. The "strange fruit" of the poem's title refers to these lynching victims, the gruesome image of "black bodies" hanging from "southern trees" serving as a stark reminder of humanity's potential for violence as well as the staggering cost of prejudice and hate. The poem became most famous as a song performed by Billie Holiday in 1939 and played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement. It has been covered by many artists since, including Nina Simone.
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“Strange Fruit” Summary
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The trees in the southern United States hang heavy with an unusual fruit. These trees have blood on their leaves and at their roots. The dead bodies of black lynching victims sway back and forth in the gentle southern wind; these bodies are the strange fruit that hang from the branches of poplar trees.
Picture the natural beauty and chivalry of the American South, where corpses hang with swollen eyes and contorted mouths. The sweet, fresh smell of magnolia flowers floats on the air, until suddenly interrupted by the smell of burning flesh.
Crows will eat the flesh from these bodies. The rain will fall on them, the wind will suck them dry, and the sun will rot them. The trees will drop them, this foul and unusual crop.
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“Strange Fruit” Themes
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The Horror and Inhumanity of American Racism
“Strange Fruit” is a harrowing poem about people's capacity for hatred and violence. The poem specifically showcases the horrors of lynching in the American South (which reached a peak towards the end of the 19th century and early 20th century). Lynching was a form of extrajudicial (that is, outside of the regular law) killing in which black people were brutally tortured and/or murdered by mobs of white people, which often hung their victims from tree branches. Through an extended metaphor in which black victims’ bodies are presented as the “strange fruit” dangling from “Southern trees,” the poem brings the horrors of racism to vivid and uncomfortable life, insisting that such violence is utterly grotesque and inhumane.
The poem contrasts something normally natural and full of life with the grim realities of lynching. The “strange[ness]” of the fruit these trees bear highlights the way that racism dehumanizes its victims, and how it makes the environment itself terrifying and inhospitable. The bodies don't belong on the trees, but have been put there by forces of hate.
The poem notably contrasts this “strange fruit” with what would normally be pleasant natural imagery—the trees themselves, the “scent of magnolias,” the sun and the wind, the “southern breeze.” These images are intended to build a picture of the “gallant south,” a place of so-called refinement, civility, and manners. Gallantry relates to bravery, charm, and chivalrous behavior—qualities that are all clearly lacking here. Racism is not just hateful, then, but totally hypocritical and antithetical to the South's purported values. The poem thus forcefully argues that no society can call itself civil and also be capable of acts like lynching; the South can’t be an idyllic “pastoral” place if black people’s corpses swing in the breeze. According to the poem, notions of progress and civilization are nothing but hollow lies if such racism is allowed to thrive.
And, importantly, this racist hatred affects the entire tree—which becomes covered in blood “on the leaves” and “at the root.” Just as a tree must suck up water from the ground and spread it all the way through its branches, the poem implies that the "blood" shed by racism works its way through humanity. Lynching is thus a failure of humanity that results in the rotting of the human family tree.
The poem then concludes with the shocking imagery of crows plucking at the corpses’ flesh, the sun rotting the neglected bodies of the victims, and the branches finally giving way and dropping the victims' bodies to the ground. The earth itself is thus corrupted by this “strange and bitter crop.” Death and hatred—through the fallen body—will be reabsorbed into the soil, and form part of the organic process that brings with it the next cycle of crops. American racism, the poem ultimately implies, is a poison that does nothing but spread yet more violence and hatred.
Where this theme appears in the poem:- Lines 1-12
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Line-by-Line Explanation & Analysis of “Strange Fruit”
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Lines 1-2
Southern trees bear ...
... at the root,“Strange Fruit” opens by situating itself in the American South and launching straight into its extended metaphor. The poem hasn’t yet specified its subject matter, however, instead opting to open with an unsettling image. The reader, of course, wonders what this “strange fruit” actually is (though most people are probably familiar with some aspect of the poem’s history these days). Fruit is usually something good: beautiful-looking, edible, nourishing. But it’s already signaled that something is off here—this fruit is strange.
The second line starts to build a sense of what brings this strangeness. This tree is covered in blood, both on its leaves and at its roots. This is like a kind of infection, linking the tree with death and violence in a way that contrasts with the normal associations of a tree (and nature more generally). The parallelism in this line—the way that both parts of the line are constructed similarly—gives it a lilting quality that evokes the image of this strange fruit swinging in the southern breeze.
Even in the space of just one relatively short line, the poem already makes use of a lot of consonance:
Southern trees bear strange fruit
The way that these sounds link across the line makes them sound like they have grown together, as though these are the strange sounds that hang on the line like the “fruit” that hangs on the trees. Given that, as will soon be revealed, the “strange fruit” of the title are the hanging corpses of human beings, the plural “trees” is also a depressing reminder that the scope of the poem isn’t limited to discussing one individual event. Instead, it reflects the widespread reality of racism. Trees and fruit are normally symbols of life—but these "Southern trees" hang heavy with death.
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Lines 3-4
Black bodies swinging ...
... the poplar trees. -
Lines 5-8
Pastoral scene of ...
... of burning flesh. -
Lines 9-11
Here is fruit ...
... trees to drop, -
Line 12
Here is a ... and bitter crop.
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“Strange Fruit” Poetic Devices & Figurative Language
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Alliteration
Alliteration is an important feature in "Strange Fruit." The first instance is in line 1:
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
The two /s/ sounds here link "Southern" with "strange." That is, they tie the "strange[ness]" of the fruit to a specific geographical location—the southern United States. Lynching predominantly took place in these states, and the alliteration gently reinforces this link.
The next example is in line 2, with the strong repetition of /b/ and /l/ sounds:
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,The two /bl/ sounds chime together, suggesting an abundance of blood (in turn suggesting the horrible violence that caused blood to be on the tree in the first place). "Black bodies" in the following is then linked via sound with this "blood," making it clear this "blood" has been spilled by black people. The loudness of these two voiced /b/ consonants also adds weight to the suddenly explicit way in which the poem clarifies what exactly "strange fruit" means (the terms of the poem's extended metaphor). In the same line, the "swinging" bodies are again specifically linked to "southern" America.
The second stanza features alliteration of the /s/ sound, also known as sibilance:
Pastoral scene of the gallant south,
...
Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh.This sibilance becomes even stronger when considering the /s/ sounds that pop up in the middle of words too. There's an almost sickeningly sweet sensation to having so many /s/ sounds in such close proximity, and this plays on the grotesque tension between prettiness and ugliness that runs throughout the poem. The magnolias smell "sweet" and beautiful, small proofs of nature's beauty—but the same air that carries their fragrance also carries the sudden and horrific smell of "burning flesh."
Where alliteration appears in the poem:- Line 1: “S,” “s”
- Line 2: “Bl,” “bl”
- Line 3: “B,” “l,” “b,” “s,” “s,” “b”
- Line 4: “S”
- Line 5: “s,” “s”
- Line 7: “S,” “s”
- Line 8: “Th,” “th,” “s,” “s”
- Line 9: “f,” “f”
- Line 10: “F,” “f,” “s”
- Line 11: “F,” “s,” “t,” “f,” “t”
- Line 12: “s”
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Assonance
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Caesura
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Consonance
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Extended Metaphor
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Repetition
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Juxtaposition
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"Strange Fruit" Vocabulary
Select any word below to get its definition in the context of the poem. The words are listed in the order in which they appear in the poem.
- Southern
- Poplar Trees
- Pastoral
- Gallant
- Magnolias
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(Location in poem: Line 1: “Southern”; Line 3: “southern”; Line 5: “south”)
The southern United States.
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Form, Meter, & Rhyme Scheme of “Strange Fruit”
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Form
"Strange Fruit" is a 12-line poem consisting of three quatrains, each of which can be further broken down into two rhyming couplets. The form is steady and simple throughout, which lends itself well to being set to music. And, of course, it was as a song performed by Billie Holiday that the poem became famous.
At the same time, the poem's smooth and easy form contrasts with its content. The poem deliberately juxtaposes grotesque horror side-by-side with seemingly pleasant natural descriptions. This helps it conjure a "pastoral scene" that has been corrupted by the presence of racism. The poem's simple, clear form can also be thought of as giving this racism nowhere to hide.
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Meter
"Strange Fruit" does not have a strict meter. Generally speaking, the lines have four or five stresses, and a varied number of syllables. The poem uses simple diction and rhyming couplets to create a fairly easy flow, one which intentionally mimics the poem's main image: bodies swaying in the breeze.
At times, this grotesque breeziness expresses itself strongly in the arrangement of unstressed and stressed syllables. For example, take line 2:
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Metrically speaking, this line is symmetrical. It starts and ends with a stress, meaning that the motion it puts in place with "blood" returns to the start in "root." This has a pendulum-like quality that echoes the poem's main image of bodies "swinging in the southern breeze."
The last line is also important metrically. After repeating "for the" in the previous three lines, the stress in line 12 falls definitively on "Here," as if to grab the reader's attention and force it to confront the image of "black bodies swinging in the southern breeze."
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Rhyme Scheme
"Strange Fruit" is written in rhyming couplets, meaning it has the following pattern in each stanza:
AABB
The rhymes are all full, perfect rhymes—"fruit"/"root," "breeze"/"trees," etc. This gives the poem a deceptively—but deliberately—easy flow. Its lines sound poetically pleasant as they unfold, even as they reveal the poem's utterly horrific subject matter. This is part of the poem's point: that the South has tried to project an air of "pastoral" gallantry even as it is plagued by deeply disturbing racist violence.
The clear-sounding rhymes emphasize the grotesque contradiction between the beauty of the natural world and the horror created by human beings, as the "black bodies," dehumanized through racism and violence, have become part of the landscape. Take note, for example, of the way that "fresh" is rhymed with "flesh"—the smell of flowers marred by the smell of burnt human tissue. The rhyme between "drop" and "crop" also emphasizes the way that hatred will only cultivate more hatred, that the seeds planted by racism will help violence grow.
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“Strange Fruit” Speaker
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The speaker in "Strange Fruit" is unspecified, but it's clear where they stand in relation to racism and violence. This is a voice of protest, one that holds up humanity's horrors and asks whether this is how it has to be. The poem is entirely focussed on the image of "black bodies swinging in the southern breeze," and it's notable how there is no human speech in the entire poem. Instead, there is only the near-silence of the corrupted "pastoral scene," the only sounds being the breeze through the leaves and the branches creaking under the weight of their "strange fruit." Much of the poem's power comes from the way that its poetic voice feels so universal, untethered to any particular identity other than an opposition to racism and hatred. (Indeed, that's part of the reason that the poem worked so well as a song—because Billie Holiday was able to bring it to life with her powerful voice.)
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“Strange Fruit” Setting
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The poem is set somewhere in the American South. It doesn't specifically state when it is set, but it is roughly dated by the focus of its subject matter: lynching, which reached its peak during the latter half of the 19th century through the first half of the 20th century. It's fair to assume it takes place around the 1930s, as that's when it was written. This was during the era of racial segregation, when deeply racist Jim Crow laws dictated life for black Americans living in the South.
The poem describes itself ironically as "pastoral scene of the gallant south." The South had a self-defined reputation for gallantry, which is a kind of combination of charm, civility, honor, and refinement. "Pastoral" relates to idyllic natural and/or rural scenery. But the poem asks how the South can really be either of the above if "black bodies" are strung up from the trees and left to rot. This tension within the setting is part of the poem's power, with the speaker deliberately mixing pleasant-sounding words and imagery with stark and graphic depictions of the dead. There may be the "scent of magnolias" on the air, but, in the South, they're mixed in with the "sudden smell of burning flesh."
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Literary and Historical Context of “Strange Fruit”
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Literary Context
Abel Meeropol was a teacher, songwriter, and poet who lived from 1903 to 1989. He grew up in the Bronx (New York) within a Russian Jewish family, and subsequently studied at Harvard.
Meeropol was a politically active man, and was for a large part of his life a member of the Communist Party (which at the time was one of the few mainly white organizations that campaigned for racial equality). "Strange Fruit" was first published in 1937 under Meeropol's pseudonym, Lewis Allan, and was originally called "Bitter Fruit." Its composition was inspired by the harrowing photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith (this photograph—which is graphic and disturbing—is linked to in the Resources section if this guide).
The significance of "Strange Fruit" can hardly be overstated. It was the first protest song to break through into the world of mass popular culture. This success—which seems like a strange word in the context of the poem's subject matter—is largely owed to the heartbreaking song version performed by Billie Holiday. Performances of the song would shock the audience into silence, the poem working its unsettling spell of "pastoral" imagery and unflinching graphic description. Though fearing reprisal for the content of the song, Holiday performed it regularly. It was often the last song in her sets, and waiting staff were instructed to stop serving before it began.
Since then, musicians as diverse as Nina Simone, Jeff Buckley, Bob Dylan, and Kanye West have cited the song as a major influence and/or recorded their own versions. It's a testament to the power of the original text that it still feels as relevant as ever.
Historical Context
"Strange Fruit" is a poem about racism and hatred. Specifically, it is about the treatment of black people by white people during a period of time roughly running from the end of the American Civil War up to the time of the poem's composition in the 1930s.
That said, the injustices of racism stretch back beyond this period. America is a nation that in the early days of white settlement was deeply intertwined with the African slave trade. Put simply, this trade saw European powers capturing African men and women and taking them to the so-called New World (specifically North America and the Caribbean islands). African men and women were put to work, some forced to help cultivate crops like sugar, tobacco, and cotton, while others became household servants. Millions of Africans suffered this fate in the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries. Slavery was entrenched in American society—George Washington himself was a slave-owner from an early age (later choosing to emancipate his slaves in his will).
From the late-19th century onwards, Jim Crow laws were enacted in the Southern United States. A kind of psychological hangover from the slave trade, these laws treated black people as fundamentally inferior to white people and institutionalized segregation. During this era, lynching became an increasingly popular form of extrajudicial killing. Sometimes motivated by unfounded fears about the threat from black people, and sometimes just the product of pure racial hatred, lynching was a form of public execution. As the poem suggests, this was mainly defined by the act of hanging the body from a tree, but also involved burning, shooting, and torture (and psychological humiliation). This poem was inspired by the photograph of the 1930 lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith. In 1955, the young Emmet Till was lynched after whistling at a white woman. His death was a significant motivating factor in the American Civil Rights movement spearheaded by Martin Luther King.
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More “Strange Fruit” Resources
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External Resources
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Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit" — Listen to Holiday's famous sung version of the poem.
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The History of Holiday's Version — A fascinating article about Billie Holiday's relationship with Meeropol's poem.
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Lynching in America — A valuable resource that looks at the history of lynching and racial hatred in the United States.
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Meeropol's Inspiration — This is the (graphic and disturbing) photograph of the lynching of Thomas Shipp and Abram Smith in 1930 that inspired the composition of the poem.
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"The House I Live In" — Meeropol wrote the lyrics to the closing song from a short 1946 film of the same title, which focused on anti-Semitism in post-war America. The song is sung by Frank Sinatra in the film.
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