For my poem analysis task, the poem I selected to analyze was ‘The Rose That Grew from Concrete’ by Tupac Shakur. Born as Lesane Parish Crooks, Tupac Shakur was one of the most notable rappers of all time. Not only was he a phenomenal rapper, but an outspoken artist whose words impressed the lives of countless people. During his years, the poem was written between 1989-1991 and officially issued on November 1st, 1999. This remarkable poem captivated my attention because I could relate to the content of the whole poem. In this poem, Tupac Shakur continually describes the difficulties and challenges he has faced by using symbolism, metaphor and personification to illustrate his point. His original methods of using three literary devices ended up being one of the most remarkable poems he has ever composed.
In ‘The Rose That Grew from Concrete’, Tupac Shakur magnificently uses symbolism to convey his life. Symbolism uses symbols to represent an entirely different meaning that is much deeper and more significant to the text, and Shakur contributed two opposing figures to tell his life story. That represented a tremendous factor in how the poem structure and tone worked in this piece. “Did you hear about the rose that grew from a crack in the concrete?” (Shakur, 1). Firstly, Shakur utilized concrete to express the place he grew up. The ghetto (East Harlem), which is primarily known for its danger and low-income people to live is statistically known for people not attempting to create a living for themselves. Secondly, a rose can never grow through concrete and still be whole and uninjured. However, the rose cracked, threw the unnatural matter, arose from the ground and looked like a flower. Therefore, this quote was signifying that Shakur overcame a statistic that seemed to be impracticable, and he still became a prominent person who supported several with the same circumstances. Even though it grew up with no nurturance, it showed how exceptional this rose must have been to have made it through the dense pavement and still be divine.
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An additional literary device that is well used in ‘The Rose That Grew from Concrete’ is personification. In the middle to end of the poem, he uses human characteristics to display the stereotypes circled people living in more disadvantaged areas. “Proving nature's law is wrong it learned to walk without having feet. Funny it seems, but by keeping its dreams, it learned to breathe fresh air” (Shakur, 2-3). In the second stanza, Shakur specifies how the rose walked without learning or having feet, which proved ‘nature’s law’ incorrect. By inputting personification into this poem further demonstrates how even though he came from the ghetto, he saw how to make it out on his own. To grow up in an arduous place like Harlem, and still become notable in today’s world without having the support (feet) to help to get there shows how hard Shakur worked to be the man he was. In the third stanza, he discusses how it learned to breathe fresh air. This quote expressed that he was finally able to leave the ghetto and have a life that he can truly appreciate. However, the only way Shakur was able to do progress was never quitting to seek them. His use of personification in this poem presents how much commitment, self-discipline, and courage it took him to achieve his spot in the world and break stereotypes about labeled neighborhoods.
Lastly, in the poem ‘The Rose That Grew from the Concrete’, the last literary device that is used was a metaphor. Throughout the poem, the metaphor is seen throughout every stanza and is visibly presented by reading it. The use of metaphor contributed to the meaning of the poem by indicating overall tone of this poem as gratified and fulfilled. The rose signified more as a representative of something else, especially something abstract than a symbolic reference. “Long live the rose that grew from concrete, when no one else ever cared” (Shakur, 4). Metaphorically, it meant he eventually praised the rose for an astounding job for its accomplishments, despite the challenges that came. How he miraculously made it out cracked the concrete was remarkable. Even though it didn’t matter to some, its reliance and power was the only thing that mattered. Therefore, the rose was surely was a comparison for Tupac Shakur. All the aspects of the rose flawlessly fit the life narrative of Shakur and exemplified how much devotedness it took for him to be who he is today.
In conclusion, in ‘The Rose That Grew from Concrete’ the overall theme of this poem is aiming for our goals, despite the situation happening around us. Tupac Shakur magnificently displayed this point in the poem and used different methods to explain his poem. Throughout this poem, he used figurative language to fully captivate the true essence of success and how it is not simple to get there. However, stereotypes do not apply to everyone, so if you stand apart from everybody else and make your mark, you will do wondrous things for this world. This poem is still relevant in today’s society because people are still living a stressful life and have no desire to make use of it. However, reading literature like this can spark one person’s ambition to be more in life, even though society says otherwise. This poem should be appreciated because even as short as the poem goes, the message behind it is compelling. Even after his death, the value of this composition will be one of the numerous well-written poems. And for that, this poem should be more than well recognized, for what it’s worth.
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