The Rose that Grew from Concrete

Although Tupac Shakur was and will likely always be more known as a rapper than a poet, the intersectionality of music lyrics and poetry, written about extensively in Book of Rhymes: The Poetics of Hip Hop by Adam Bradley, should not be overlooked. The lyricism in rap verses shares many parallels with poetry, and poetry at times can be both music and musical (consider ballads and lyrics—two poetry forms that are also musical terms—and even this poem), so there is little doubt that “The Rose That Grew from Concrete” has a place within the expansive artistic tradition that includes literature and music.

In many ways, Tupac’s poem fits the definition of an Imagist poem, in the sense that Tupac borrows from established forms and rhythms but also breaks the meter and creates his own, what Ezra Pound would call “absolute rhythm.” Imagism gave way to Modernism, meaning Tupac’s poem fits in nicely with Modernist poems in form. The poem mirrors Imagist guidelines in that Tupac makes use of an image (a rose) to render feeling and sentiment, precision of language, and other tenets that were important to the Imagists, who often get lumped in with their Modernist counterparts but really set the stage for what most now know as Modernist poetry.