The Shrug of Jah
“In the long ago beginning
the world was unmapped.
It was nothing really –
just a shrug of Jah
something he hadn’t thought all the way through” ("The Shrug of Jah")
In this second poem, the author uses a metaphor for the world: the shrug of Jah (Jamaican slang for "God"). God, reflecting the Rastafarian attitude, created the world effortlessly and ambivalently with a mere shrug before it was a fully formed idea. This laid-back view of the nature of the universe manifests itself in the philosophy of the rastaman, one of the two major characters of the book.
Babylon
“Any any where Rastafari trod
Any any where Rastafari trod
Any any where Rastafari trod
Babylon a follow” (epigraph, Rastafari chant)
This quote, part of one of the two epigraphs of the book, also provides insight into the philosophy of the rastaman. Man is naturally corrupt, and anywhere man is, there also is corruption. This corruption takes the form of the metaphor of Babylon, a Biblical city of moral degradation and pagan indulgence. In this chant, the Rastafarians are describing their view of the world and of Zion, which must be a supernatural place if it is to escape the clutches of Babylon.
Tailors
“Like tailors who must know their clients’ girths
two men set out to find the sprawling measure of the earth.” ("Establishing the Metre")
This simile, describing the efforts of Pierre Méchain and Jean-Baptiste Delambre to produce a map of the world, accentuates the fact that these two men are attempting to fashion a stylistic representation of the world in their map. They also are measuring the width of the world much like a tailor would measure the waist of his customer, bringing a bit of humor into the simile.
Maps Like Girdles
“maps which throughout time have gripped like girdles
to make his people smaller than they were.” ("vi.")
In this passage, the narrator is describing the rastaman's too-hasty dismissal of the cartographer's worldview. He automatically attributes the cartographer's motivations to the spirit of imperialism in the Western world that resulted in the reduction of his people (Caribbean islanders) to dots on a map, leading to their enslavement. This simile, comparing the maps to girdles that grip and constrict, emphasizes his position.
Knees Like Tombstones
“a prayer for the cedars and their dead knees rising
from the water like tombstones” ("A Prayer for the Unflummoxed Beaver")
In this poem, the narrator is describing various elements of a peaceful scene of a boat in a river. The simile cited here is but one of these elements, wherein the narrator prays for the cedars in the water, whose roots and stumps protrude from the river "like tombstones," emphasizing their stark similarity and their lifelessness.
