1. Might it be that EP connected ant and
centaur because both have six limbs?
 
2. In connection with the vanity theme,
the line's meaning doesn't seem that mysterious--
to me, anyway.  All he's saying is that all us little
critters puff ourselves up in our minds--
(we become centaurs) and puff up the
importance of our little worlds of concern
(enemy lizards become dragons)--far beyond their
real significance.
 
Nevertheless, it's fun to see all these ingenious
explications offered up here.  The line does serve
as a wonderful Rorschach for us literary critics.
This is my own second run at it.
 
==Dan P
 
At 03:14 PM 3/14/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Michael Coyle asked: "what *do* these lines mean?
>>The ant's a centaur in his
>>  dragon world."
>        I like this question a lot--because I don't know the answer either,
>but have puzzled by it for about ten years, after taking it for granted for
>the previous twenty.
 
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