To the listserv,
Wonderful back and forth on the ant. I can't remember the previous
listserv discussion on the subject, but was The Serious Artist brought
into the dialogue? LE p 52 has "Poetry is a centaur. The thinking
word-arranging, clarifying faculty must move and leap with the
energizing, sentient, musical faculties. It is precisely the difficulty
of this amphibious existence that keeps down the census record of good
poets."
In this case, the ant is the poet in the dragon (military) world. Scaled
invention, yes, but probably not meaning man is no better than an ant,
and probably not looking at soldier ants.
Also see Terrell's Vol. I, p 7 regarding Proteus, Aristophanes' frogs,
and the mention of horse or goat hindquarters of poetry being the
centaur.
Pound/Zagreus in Hades has found the good poet in the ant.

Best,
Margaret