By Larry Fyffe
Onward march the reindeer armies of metonymy.
Considered by some is that Queen of Sheba with King Solomon’s baby in her belly transfers the Heaven-On-Earth of the future, at least in part, from Jerusalem to Ethiopia, a paradise in Africa modelled after the idealistic depiction of the biblical Garden Of Eden:
She was the rose of Sharon from paradise lost From the seven hills near the place of the cross (Bob Dylan: Caribbean Wind)
She’s the personification of an ideal place ~ as presented in the poem below:
A damsel with a dulcimer In a vision once I saw It was an Abyssinian maid And on a dulcimer she played Singing of Mount Abora (Samuel Coleridge: Kubla Khan)
Though Ethiopia’s not biblical Eden, it’s close enough thereto ~ as noted in the poem “Paradise Lost”:
Nor where Abassin kings their issue guard Mount Amara, though this by some supposed true paradise under the Ethiop line (John Milton: Paradise Lost, Book IV)
Noted too is that Queen Sheba’s skin is not white:
I am black, but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem As the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon .... I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valley (Song Of Solomon 1:5, 2:1)
Thus claimed that via her womb there be descendants of Hebrew slaves delivered out of Egypt who settle in Abyssina (Abassin).
King David and Bathsheba are Solomon’s parents:
Princes shall come out of Egypt Ethiopia shall stretch out her hand unto God (Psalm 68:31)
Jamaican “Rastafarians” refer to God, who is black, as “Jah” (Jehovah).
Ethiopia/Abyssinia ~ from where many of the Queen’s offspring end up getting kidnapped by men armed with iron guns, and shipped off as slaves to America, including the islands of the Caribbean Sea:
She told me about the jungle Where her brothers were slain By the man who invented iron And disappeared mysteriously (Bob Dylan: Caribbean Wind)
America becomes New Babylon, and a post-apocalyptic return by blacks to heavenly Ethiopia is envisioned by Rastafarians:
Every new messenger brings evil report 'Bout armies on the march, and the time that is short And famines and earthquakes and train wrecks (Bob Dylan: Caribbean Wind)
In the following song lyrics, the ancient elements of earth, wind, water, and fire (figuratively presented by poet William Blake) act as objective correlatives:
I see a house in the country being torn apart from within I hear my ancestors calling from the land far beyond And the Caribbean winds still blow from Nassau to Mexico From the flames of the furnace of desire (Bob Dylan: Caribbean Wind)
Reminding of the Rodgers and Hammerstein-like lyrics below, and the train that is supposed to come up around the bend:
Walk out in the rain Walk out with some dreams Walk out of my life if it don't feel right And catch the next train (Eric Clapton: Walk Out In The Rain ~ Bob Dylan/ Helena Springs)