Analysis of the Poem Strange Fruit by Cyrus Cassell - Essay Example

Student’s Name Street Address City, ST ZIP Code e-mail phone fax Title of Paper Student’s Name Thesis Statement This paper examines the poem “Strange Fruit” written by Cyrus Cassell. The poem, written by an African American Author, says more than the words can convey. There exists an African American experience that gives the words a different meaning. The relationship between poetry, jazz, the blues, and the African American experience will be examined. The roots of African American music and poetry will be examined as well. African Roots An outsider looking in may comment that African Americans lost their roots and heritage when they were captured, shipped far away from home, and enslaved. The outsider might comment about the common language of Americans being English with the African Americans having been assimilated and adopted English as their mother tongue. The outsider is so wrong. African Americans have a rich heritage that their ancestors brought with them when they were captured and enslaved. They brought no material belongings but brought the memories of their homes and culture. Through poetry and song these African natives passed on to their descendents a rich culture filled with rhythm and song. The result is poetry and music unique to African Americans and unique to American culture. When Africans were enslaved they worked hard out in the fields during the days. There hard work was made bearable thru songs that contained African rhythms. Early versions of African American music were very similar to the Western African call and response. The leader would call out his portion and the group would respond. These tunes often contained stories about their woes and grew into rhythm and blues. The rhythm and uniquely African beats grew into gospel and choir music. This history also helped create ragtime, Dixieland, bebop, and other music unique to African American communities. Strange Fruit The poem “Strange Fruit” was borne from the African American experience. The poem has much meaning to those who have felt the negative aspects of being African American. The language and style of the poem have little meaning unless one is aware of the African American experience that preceded it. The overall theme of the poem is ‘lynching’ and the fears associated with knowing that you could be chosen next to be lynched. The fear of being lynched because of your skin color or actions deemed inappropriate for blacks, ran deep in the hearts of African Americans. Like the Jewish families, that tell their children about the Holocaust, African Americans need to continue to tell their children about the black experience: the black Holocaust. This poem is a form of communication that can serve to educate young African Americans and their White and Latino brothers. The poem begins with “The wailing of the clarinet and then the wounding voice of the woman with the fulgent Gardenia in her hair: Southern trees bear strange fruit, Blood on the leaves, blood on the root…” This tune was sung by many in the south and was a grim reminder to all that heard it that lynchings could take places at any time. The “strange fruit’ was the victims of the lynching hanging from the trees. The blood was the blood of the victims. The song was sung by Billie Holiday (an African American) as a way to express frustration over Jim Crow Laws. The first lines of the poem may refer to a white woman with a brilliantly radiant flower in her hair. Her ‘wounding voice’ refers to the pain her song (or words) gave to her black listeners. A constant reminder of what could happen to you conveyed to you in the form of a song. The poem goes on to express the fear the author had when he heard this song sung. The writer of this poem goes on to express how he felt when he first realized that this could happen to him. This may have been the writer’s first realization of what racism was and what a lynching was and that he was of the wrong color (black). The author becomes part of a larger group that has suffered for generations. The author feels “pure sadness” when he realizes what the ‘strange fruit’ was. Emmett Till is mentioned in this poem as ‘the boy who was lynched foe “eyeball rape”. Till was a boy from Chicago who was on a summer trip to Mississippi visiting relatives. Till was lynched for whistling at a white girl. Till had violated the Jim Crow laws and thus paid with his life.(PBS, 2007). This angered many and was the fuel that pushed forward the Civil Rights Movement. It seems as if the author envisions himself in Emmett Till’s place, as the one being lynched. He saw Emmett Till as the ‘strange fruit’ from the song and then realized it could have easily been him “swinging from a tree.” I think we can only imagine what he might have been feeling. The African American experience is nothing like it was years ago, but it is not nearly resolved either. The African American experience still plays out in music such as jazz, the blues, hip hop, etc… It is important that we not forget the stories played out in music. The music that young African Americans create, and listen to, is a result of the contributions that Jazz, rhythm, and blues all made. African American music encourages improvising and creativity. The message that these young musicians send today is as important as the message found in Cyrus Cassell’s poetry and other types of African American music. Call music helped slaves express their frustrations. Blues music was a forum for those subject to Jim Crow laws to express their frustration. And rap and hip hop is the avenue today’s young use to express their frustration. Toward the end of the poem the author/narrator expresses how he is ‘still listening to what haunted me as a child’. He continues to dream about death and wonders what the magic word is that would end lynchings for good. He does not what to become ‘strange fruit’ hanging from a poplar tree. After Hurricane Katrina Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice was asked to comment on what was going on in New Orleans and whether African Americans were singled out. She answered: “But what I see is I see Americans across the spectrum -- Asians and blacks and whites and Latinos -- helping each other. Because you may be a hyphenated American, an African-American or a German-American or a Mexican-American, but you're American in this country. And that's what you're seeing is that Americans are pulling together to help Americans.”(Rice, 2005) Her comments give hope to the possibility that some day we will all see ourselves as “Americans” while embracing the unique cultural differences between us all. The American experience that is conveyed in the poem by Cyrus Cassell is one filled with hate and hurt. It is an experience of a people searching for that magic word that would end racism. It is also an experience that people have expressed using the tools their ancestors brought over from Africa. Those tools are the ability to use music to express feelings and the ability to pass on to the next generation a history that should not be repeated. The gift of music brought from Africa has evolved into music styles that are unique to African Americans. Jazz and the Blues are both derivatives of music originally sung in the fields and choirs of the south. The oral traditions repeated over and over helped created Jazz and the Blues. Words of a poem could very well be the lyrics to a Blues song. Great Blues musicians used music to communicate to their audiences. The father of the Blues is agreed to be W.C. Handy who published his “Memphis Blues” way back in 1912. Jazz has its origins in the New Orleans of 1910s. New Orleans culture grew into a unique mixture of music and dance that was identified as African American. Although no one knows the origins of the word ‘Jazz’ many agree that it is a slang term. Jazz has also been referred to as the classical music of the African American community. Jazz has developed over the years into a part of New Orleans culture. Funerals in New Orleans are often led by a procession of instrumentalists (like a marching band) that play melancholy blues music to the grave. This same procession is led back into town by instrumentalists playing jazzy tunes to a happy beat. Most jazz musicians have little or no formal music training but are self-taught. Musicians that have musical training are working to preserve jazz music. Conclusion African American music and poetry are the result of years of what’s called the African American experience. The growth of this music and poetry can be traced back to Western Africa where call music and drum rhythms similar to those of early African American music can be found. Music and poetry have been used as a form of expression and have given African Americans the opportunity to vent their frustrations. Music, and other forms of art, can act as a thermometer to measure the frustrations that a community feels. Martin Luther King, Jr. advocated change through non-violence. Music and other art forms offer the opportunity for expression via non-violence. Works Cited: Public Broadcast Television. “The Murder of Emmett Till”. Retrieved 2007-04-16 from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/filmmore/index.html# Rice, Condoleeza. Speech given at Bayou La Batre, Alabama. 2005. Retrieved 2007-04-16 from http://www.state.gov/secretary/rm/2005/52484.htm Verve Music Group. “Jazz History – The Blues”. Retrieved 2007-04-16 from www.vervemusicgroup.com/history.aspx?hid=9 Other Sources: Burns, Ken & Geoffrey C. Ward. Jazz - A History of America's Music. Alfred A. Knopf, NY USA. 2000. or: The Jazz Film Project, Inc. Porter, Eric. What is this thing called Jazz? African American Musicians as Artists, Critics and Activists. University of California Press, Ltd. London, England. 2002. Szwed, John F. Jazz 101: A Complete Guide to Learning and Loving Jazz. The History of Jazz. Thomson-Gale Books. Chicago Jazz: A Cultural History, 1904-1930. Oxford University Press, Inc. Read More