Strange Fruit By Abel Meeropol Summary

“Strange Fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees” (Meeropol 4). This is a line well said by the author, Abel Meeropol. Abel Meeropol was a Jewish man who was labeled as a communist. The date that this poem was released was 1937. Abel’s motivation to “Strange Fruit” was when he saw an image of a lynching. Robert and Michael, the two boys that Abel adopted. Were the kids of biological parents, Julius, and Ethel Rosenberg. Although, the boys are adopted, Abel still treats them as if they were one of his own. Julius, and Ethel traded atomic bomb secret with the Soviet Union. Once the U.S. found out they were sentenced death by the electric chair. The Powerful imagery in Abel Meeropol’s poem, “Strange Fruit,” reveals the brutal reality of racism in America during the early to mid 1900’s. In the poem,

The poem vividly describes death, and lynchings. The poem has a very sad and depressing tone; However, in some parts of the poem is can be happy, such as this line here, “Scent of magnolias sweet and fresh” (Meeropol 6). The emotion the speaker may use is more sad, dark, and depressed. This poem relates deeply to history. Lynching was a public thing back then and people would come their to enjoy it, they found it pleasurable. Abel wanted people to see that lynchings are not okay, and we should stop doing them. The readers response he/she might give is “That was actually a good poem.” The poem is very well written and stated. Is depicts Lynching perfectly in the poem. Yet Abel does take twists on the poem, for example, “(1) Pastoral scene of the gallant south (2) The bulgin’ eyes and the twisted mouth” (Meeropol 6-7). This shows that the poem can take a turn at any minute, Abel describes the pastoral scene and gallant south, describing it as a nice place to be, then turns and says, “The bulgin’ eyes and the twisted mouth” (Meeropol 7). Depicting a depressing tone and making it just so real, you can imagine it so well and