By vanity blinded, and panting for praise,
As Swans, or as Turkeycocks, dancing the hays!
Conceive, too—but I can’t conceive it if you can,
Little Wren bending under the beak of the Toucan!
While the Toucan himself, though an hundred times bigger,
Votes his own bill a bore,—as you’ll easily figure.
Not a bird of the air can you bring me whose belly
Can half as much hold as the pouch of the Peli-
Can:—yet in despite of his size and his maw,
(’Twas in vain to object) he would come as a Daw!