LYRIC POETRY
It can and does go with modern acoustic or electric instruments.
Many modern pop songs have a lyric poem core but lyric poetry has a deeper emotional resonance and more aesthetic use of language than ordinary songs.
Some poems are pop songs but not all pop songs are poetry.
Southern trees bear a strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene Of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
And the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is a fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for a tree to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
© Abel Meeropol
Jewish schoolteacher and political activist Abel, wrote this poem after seeing a photograph of a lynching.
These poetic lyrics became popular and culturally powerful one cold winter’s in 1939 when a young black singer called Billie Holliday stood on a New York stage, illuminated by a single spotlight and poured them out of her heart. A few months later Billie managed to record the song which became a best seller. The poem became part of a growing anti racist movement having wrote its place into history. Time Magazine honoured Strange Fruit with the accolade of song of the century in 1999.