Speaker
The speaker is unspecified and anonymous. The role is to provide narration although by the very nature of the content of the narrative, it is safe to assume their perspective is one which is sympathetic. The imagery is presented with no irony and instead features an emotional tenor so detached from an extremity of reaction as to become a portrait of almost apathetic hopelessness.
The Strange Fruit
The strange fruit of the poem is, of course, one of the most chilling metaphors in 20th century poetry. Through the accumulation of imagery encompassing bloody leaves, bulging eyes and twisted mouths, burnt flesh and scavenger birds feasting on carrion, the brutally intense symbolism is constructed that transforms the bodies of black Americans who have been lynched by whites into low hanging fruit of indeed the strangest appeal.
