Prose and poetry are different literary genres. It is true that poetry can have a definite meter. For example sonnets have fourteen decasyllabic lines and they are written in iambic pentameter where a rigorous rhyme convention has to be followed. However, there is free verse and other types of poems which do not follow a specific scheme. On the contrary, prose does not use a specific meter, it is a natural flow of speech in written form. Accordingly, the characteristic that distinguishes prose and poetry is the metrical structure.
I feel like the tone in these few lines is that of stubbornness, so (D).
The author talks about how the fruit struggles and continues to grow despite of everything going against it. This is probably a reference to something else. ( I think the rights of colored people?"
